


Defenders of the Realms: Book 1: Origin of the Realms

by DJ_RJ_Centurion



Series: Defenders of the Realms [1]
Category: 101 Dalmatians - All Media Types, Legend of Spyro, My Little Pony, Rio (Movies - Saldanha), Skylanders - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anthropomorphic, Character Death, Crossover, F/M, Fantasy, Gen, Immortality, Minor Character Death, Minor Violence, Modern Era, Original Character Death(s), Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-05-03 12:26:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 30,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5290763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DJ_RJ_Centurion/pseuds/DJ_RJ_Centurion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Forces of Darkness are slowly but surely encroaching upon the Realms of the Light... After regaining their memories of heroic deeds and mystical worlds beyond imagination, Leonidas and his allies join the fight for the survival of hope. War is upon them... From the advanced nations of the Avian Realm and the blood-stained ruins of the Dragon Realms to the magical fields of Mysticania and the parasitic environments of Earth... Even the very Origins of the Realms themselves and the rise of their protectors: the Fate-Bane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dragons and War

Spyro’s POV

            “Status?” Master Eon asked me. We were talking through magic crystal orbs that allow inter-dimensional communication.

            “Thistletail Centurions control the Eastern shores. We can’t contact our supply units on the other side of the ocean.” I explained. “We’ve sent a small expedition into the ruins of Warfang. They’ve set up an encampment and have begun to push back the Bloodwing Destroyers to make way for a second launch.”

            “Did you have any luck with reclaiming the Dam and the nearby outpost?”

            “No. Any force we try to send will get slaughtered by the Wyverns.”

            This is hell. Dragons fighting Dragons. Our ancient cities, our homes, our friends, our Realm… We were killing them. What would Ignitus do? Ignitus… He’s been dead for years. Only Cyril, Terrador, and Volteer died recently. Not only do we have to fight the forces led by Malefor, but we have to fight this Kahaniria as well. It’s tough being in charge of thousands of dragons from dozens of species… I, personally, can’t ask my friends to sacrifice more than they already have. Elysia lost her entire family and most of her kind… Flame lost his brother, Bandit lost his family and friends as well… What have I lost? I lost Ignitus… Cyril, Terrador, Volteer… They were my teachers. They taught me how to use the Elements I now mastered. A tear escaped from my eye. Cynder, my partner and girlfriend, walked over to me.

            “Take it easy… You’re not alone.” She said. She turned to Master Eon through the crystal orb. “So how go things in the Skylands? I hope our absence didn’t affect the Skylanders’ strength that much, did it?”

            “I suppose it’s a bit easier for us in the Skylands than it is for you guys in the Dragon Realms…” Master Eon responded. “Where are Blackout and Spotlight?”

            Camo interrupted the entire conversation. “Probably making out on the sidelines over with the expedition into Warfang…”

    “You know, Camo…” Cynder growled.

    “What?” The plant dragon shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a possibility…”

    I rolled my eyes and smirked at Camo. “Just wait until you hook up with someone, then the joke’s on you, Prankster.”

    Before we could do anything else, a loud, resounding thunder-clap filled the air. My ear-drums were about to completely shatter, it felt like. I know what that meant… The dragon species called Thunder Screechers had arrived. I didn’t like it one bit, dragons killing dragons, but as soon as Malefor arose from the depths of the Underworld, all bets were off.

    “I’m sorry, Master Eon!” I yelled. “We gotta go!” After cutting off the call, I drew my axe, Wind-Razor, from the holder on my back. We need a way to push back before the Realm is overwhelmed. Here’s the lay of the land so far:

    The Dragon Realms’ Capital, Warfang, lies in ruin.  Bloodwing Destroyers control the city. Blackout, Spotlight, and an expedition of Shadowdancers and Spectrum Dusters went to secure the Western gates of the city. We haven’t heard back yet. Thistledown Centurions control the Eastern Shores, but they’ll be facing a Water Serpent Host led by Zap and Echo.  Most of the Realm is on the defensive for now. Bash and Flashwing are in the mountains to the south of the Realm. They’re defending a fort we established in an ancient temple that runs through the interior of the mountains themselves. Bandit, Flame, and Ember are in the north defending a large grove with cherry blossom trees and evergreens... Beautiful place, and it contains one of our most important weapon and supply caches. Our main base of operations is the Valley of Avalar, defended by the Cheetahs led by my dear friend, Hunter. The dragons that stood with us defend that place as well. Cynder, Camo, Elysia, and I are in a place called the Shattered Vale. We were one of the first lines of defense the Dragon Realms had against Malefor’s armies. Now, the Mountain of Malefor nearby is the commanding base for the Staunch Skins, Kahaniria’s species. Of course, Elysia wants to kill the Staunch Skins.

    This Vale is more important than one may think… There’s a hidden tomb somewhere… We may be close to finding Light Fate-Bane… Not Arinokhthelion of course, but maybe one of his descendants...

     

    Blackout’s POV

    Now I want to know what the actual hell compelled them to send me here with Spotlight! We’re complete opposites, her and I! We and our expedition set up a few camps within the Western Watchtowers of Warfang. The Bloodwing-Destroyers have subsided for now, but I sense that they’ll return… My sword, Night-Bane, craves to kill my enemies! I will bathe in the blood of the Bloodwing-Destroyers for all the pain they’ve caused us… I want nothing but the death of Malefor, Kahaniria, and the survival of the Dragon Realms and the Skylands!

    “Blackout, you done daydreaming yet?” Spotlight asked.

    “Shut up, Spotlight…” I snapped back.

    “Calm down, I was just asking…”

    “I’m not daydreaming, I was thinking!” I whipped my head in her direction.

    “Yeah, sure…”  
  
    I stood up and went over to the group of dragons sitting around a campfire. They looked at me with widened eyes and with fear… “Calm down, guys… I’ll buy you all drinks when this is over…” I commented as I sat next to a Spectral Duster.

    “If we all live…” He said. Kilario, his name is.

    “Dude… You doubt yourself too much. You fought bravely today when we first arrived.” I tried to comfort him, but my voice is too agitated. “You’ll live.”

    Perfect timing on this one… Whistling through the air, a black line pierced straight through Kilario’s chest from behind. He fell to the side. I heard him say ‘Live for me…’ before his pupils faded and almost disappeared in contrast to the white in his eyes. He’s dead. Kilario’s heart was pierced by one of the Bloodwing Destroyer’s massive and deadly arrows.

    “You bastards!!!” I screeched. I rushed through the air at the one who fired and sliced the devil across his shoulder. His bow split, his arrow splintered, and his body was easier to cut through than butter with a warm knife… The other dragons flew up to the surrounding Bloodwing Archers. I pivoted my right foot, decapitating the Bloodwing next to me and thrusted back my left foot, forcing the third off the causeway. He hit the ground hard with an audible snap. Serves him right. Now, why didn’t he fly? Oh yeah, I sliced his wing membrane before I stuck my foot in his chest… The other dragons and I flew down to Spotlight and her company.

    “What the hell was that?!” Spotlight asked.

    “Kilario just got clipped, that’s what happened!” I yelled back. More Bloodwing Destroyers rallied from the east. Before they were upon us, I made a wager with Spotlight. “So, if I kill more than you, you sleep with me tonight…”

    “Fine…” She agreed. “And If I kill more, you’re sleeping with Sajmalor…” Sajmalor is a Grimbrood Crawler. Dragons with spider-like features. Sajmalor is attractive, I’ll give her that, but she’s not my type.

    “Fair enough…” I  _will_  be with Spotlight one day. Opposites attract, you know.

    Sunburn’s POV

    I’m glad Spyro sent my sweetheart Sonic Boom and I together on the same mission… But did they have to send the twins, Noxus and Zora with us? They’ll destroy everything! Sonic Boom, the Twins, Drobot, Whirlwind and I were deployed at the Sky Fortress, Hurricanium. The fortress is controlled by Air Dragons like Whirlwind and Griffins like Sonic Boom. Sonic Boom’s children are cursed, by the way. She has 5 of them. One is unaffected, but the other four aren’t immune. Once they hatch, they can live only for a few short minutes before being magically returned to their eggs. I vowed to find the wizard who invoked this curse and I will kill him… For Sonic Boom’s sake, and for her hatchlings… Female griffins can have children even without a mate. Sonic Boom did because she had no other family. She was forced to watch her four other children be reborn every day for ninety-seven years.

    “How do you think Sonic Wind is doing?” She proposed the question with a worried look on her face. She was staring down as we were walking to the battlements in the fortress. I grasped her hand.

    “He’s fine… If Spyro and Master Eon trust him to survive, then so do I.” I replied. Sonic Wind is a child… Sure, he’s ninety-seven, but he’s immortal, as we all are. Ninety-seven is an adolescent, barely. Sonic Wind also bears one of the Sentinels of Warfang, ancient weapons wielded in the defense of Warfang thousands of years ago. We all have these weapons. Spyro has Wind-Razor the battle-axe. Sonic Wind wields Sûvalang, the two-handed great sword, and so on. I wield the Obsidian Daggers.

    “I’m just worried about him, I’m his mother…” Sonic Boom whispered. You could hear it in her voice, she was truly concerned.

    “I understand your worry for him. Master Eon’s watching out for him while we’re here. You’ve got barely anything to worry about. As long as Master Eon’s there, Sonic Wind is untouchable.” I explained. Sonic Boom stepped in front of me, forcing me to stop walking. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. One would wonder how we could kiss when we have beaks, being a griffin and a phoenix, and to that I say it’s not that difficult.

    Retreated back to only a few inches from my face, she whispered, “Thank you, Sunburn…” I wanted this moment to last forever, however the invading Blackwind Dragons decided to launch their assault on Hurricanium at that moment. Noxus ran over to us.

    “Hey!” He yelled. “When you two love-birds are done playing ‘Hide the Zucchini’, we could use some help at the Upper Sky Battlements!”

     _“IT WASN’T LIKE THAT!!!”_ Sonic Boom and I both screeched at the top of our lungs. I swear, I love Sonic Boom, but my ear-holes are at serious risk if I stand next to her when she releases her Sound Element screams. The three of us rushed to the Upper Battlements, to which point, the Blackwind and Whitestorm Dragons were slaughtering each other. A good friend of mine, a Whitestorm named Stratus, was pinned on the wall outside with a scimitar piercing his neck.

    I went livid at that point.

    The Blackwinds charged at me, to which I unleashed all the Fire Elemental power I could muster into one breath. My entire body was engulfed in flames. While maintaining this state, I flew into the Blackwind Dragon host, and eviscerated all in my path. Sonic Boom flew beside me. She used her dual swords, the Hurricane Blades, to summon the power of tornadoes and tempests against the invaders. Whitestorm Dragons followed us, using their Air Element abilities to fight that of the Blackwind Dragons. Death, Blood, and Lightning colored the sky as the desire to live poured through each and every one of us. The battle raged for hours.

    “Watch it, Sunburn!” Noxus’ twin, Zora, yelled at me. I accidentally hurled a bit of fire in her direction.

    “Sorry!” I apologized before I sliced open a Blackwind Dragon and scorched his ribcage… I was too nice on this one. So I cut his head off.

     _No more…_ I thought.  _This war has barely been going on for three weeks, and already we’ve lost so many… No more!!!_

    “Whirlwind! Sonic Boom!” I yelled. The two women swung their heads around at me. “Fire a Rainbow Singularity and an Electrified Tornado at me!”

    Using her natural Rainbow abilities, Whirlwind charged what’s called a Rainbow Singularity and fired it at me. It’s basically a spiraling hurricane of rainbow light with a black center, where the power is at its peak. With her swords, Sonic Boom has the power to utilize powerful abnormal storms. Firing both of those at me, with my flaming body, the Rainbow Singularity and the Electrified Tornado were amplified. The surrounding sky was encased in a massive storm of fire, rainbows, electricity, and wind. Whirlwind’s rainbows have another property. They heal her allies.

     A good majority of the Blackwind host was wiped out. We didn’t apprehend that until the smoke finally died down. This Blackwind Dragon assault was cut down by the rejuvenated Whitestorm warriors.

    “We achieved victory this assault…” Drobot said. Was he only present just so he could say that line? Well, that, and offer tech-support with the siege weapons. “But be cautious, more approach on the horizon.”

We will not die this day. Like Drobot said, we’ll achieve victory. Sometimes, I wonder if we’re winning battles only to lose the war. 


	2. Light From Dark

    Blades’ POV

    I regret it at night…

    I didn’t go with Spyro and the others to the Dragon Realms… I’m a Dragon! A High-Scalos Dragon… My species defended Scalos Castle for a century, now I’m here in the Skylands, as was my wish, but I didn’t know I’d be digging somewhere in a canyon looking for a tomb that may or may not exist!

    A small group Skylanders, especially from the Earth, Magic, and Fire Elements, were sent to this rocky canyon in search of the Tomb of Arinokhthelion.

    “I don’t like it…” Trail Blazer, a Fire Element Skylander, and also a flaming horse, commented. “How come the others are off fighting and we’re here playing Dig Dug at some unearthly hour of the night?”

    “If that is thine opinion, then thou may turn and leave.” The hooded, faceless sorcerer, Enigma, snapped back with his delicate red cloak with golden trims. He’s a Magic Element Skylander, and one of the Trap Team, the Skylands’ greatest team of mercenaries who hunt down escaped convicts. “We have a mission, and we mustn’t fail.”

    “Of course we can fail!” The Undead Element vampire, Roller Blade, exclaimed, with purple hair whipping around as she turned her head to Enigma. “This tomb may or may not even exist, so what’s the point?”

    “The point is…” Terrafin the Land Shark: an Earth Element Skylander, interrupted with his Old West accent, “If we find this place, we could have a whole army of Light Fate-Bane on our side! We could end this war before we lose too many of us!”

    The thought was nice… No more of us dying and finally putting an end to Kaos, one who tried to take over the Skylands numerous times. Too many of the Skylands’ citizens have fallen. How many more must die, and we’re only three weeks into the war! We stopped at an unusually placed stone.

    “Terrafin, Prism Break, you’re up… Again…” I commanded. Terrafin only had to punch the thing once before it cracked. Prism Break shot it with a few light beams and shattered the boulder with his crystalline powers. Behind it was an intricately-built gate.

    “Dost thou see?” Enigma asked. “I knew we would find something worthwhile.”

    “No you didn’t!” Flameslinger, the Skylands Elf Archer, and a Fire Element Skylander protested. “You can’t see into the future!”

    “No, thou is correct, I cannot.” Enigma confessed. “However, I enjoy being optimistic, brings a bit of cheer during these dark times.”

    Terrafin, Prism Break, Trail Blazer unleashed a barrage of attacks upon the gate in an attempt to force it open, but to no avail. The gate remained shut, and we were stuck here.

    “How the hell do we open this?” Trail Blazer asked while trying to catch his breath. “And what do we do with it? Do we leave and come back when we’re better prepared, or do we stay here?”

     _Maybe this is the Tomb…_  I thought. Legend does say that the Tomb is sealed by two hundred thousand year-old magic. This is a very real possibility. We can either stay here, risk getting attacked, or leave to tell Master Eon and come back with a better force, and risk it falling into the wrong hands…

    Before any of us could make a decision, a strong, foreign voice spoke out towards us.

    “Who goes there?”

    A large, well-built, bipedal bear approached us, with a large, fancy battleaxe in his hand “What is your purpose?”

    We didn’t respond out of fear that we’d lose our heads. “This is sacred property, you are not allowed in this place!”

    “We had no knowledge of the importance of this place…” Enigma explained. “My name is Enigma of the Trap Team, and these are my allies: Terrafin, Prism Break, Roller Blade, Flameslinger, Trail Blazer, and Blades. We are Skylanders.”

    The bear studied us for a moment, holding his lantern closer to our faces. “You don’t seem like Forces of Darkness… I will trust you. I am Borya Thickhide of the Realm of Earth. Notice these markings on my arm…” He gestured to his left arm’s biceps. “I am Fate-Bane.”

    That bomb hit worse than one of Ka-Boom’s cannon shells. A Fate-Bane! “So they still exist…” I whispered. “Incredible!”

    “Of course we exist, who tell you otherwise?” Borya growled. “We live in secret, searching for the Heir.”

    Roller Blade looked puzzled. Through her fangs, she proposed the question, “The Heir?”

    Borya darted his eyes at the vampire and growled. “Who else than the Heir of Arinokhthelion? As the prophecy foretold, the Heir will return when darkness descends upon the Realms after two hundred millennia!”

    “What bloody prophecy?” Flameslinger intervened.

    “The Prophecy of the Fate-Bane…” Borya explained. “It went a little like this:

     _Trapped in time, an endless slumber,_

     _Warriors of Light, cased in magical sepulcher_

     _The Forces of Darkness, whom wish to conquer_

     _After 100 wars for Realms, and the death of the Light’s Master_

     _Two-Hundred millennia, the Fate-Bane will sleep_

     _In a tomb that’s sealed away in the deep_

     _For when the Heir comes to claim the Spear,_

     _All Creatures of Shadow, beware”_

    There was a long, unnatural silence of unease. All of our eyes were widened, all of us at a loss for words. Nothing frightened me more than what this bear had just told me. I was afraid, I don’t know why, but I am.

    “Most of the Fate-Bane today are from Earth…” Borya explained. “But our numbers barely exceed past one hundred strong. We’ve seen the devastation caused by the Forces of Darkness already, however even if we could muster all living Light Fate-Bane, we can’t hold back all this evil.”

    “Then we just have to locate the Heir of Arinokhthelion, correct?” Enigma asked.

    “Easier said than done, my faceless friend.” Borya answered. “Léonidas was here, but he hasn’t been in Skylands in a very long time. He could have claimed Anthel, but Master Eon took him and the other nineteen away! We understood why, but… It didn’t feel right.”

    “And because Master Eon wiped their memories to protect them, they can’t come help…” Terrafin concluded.

    “However…” Borya said. “We’re narrowed down the location of Léonidas on Earth to North America… His sister, Eruaistaniel, is off travelling Earth to prepare the Humans for war, but they are stubborn and greedy, only caring for themselves and their money…”

    “Why can’t Eruaistaniel come claim the Spear, then?” Roller Blade asked.

    “There are complications with that…” Borya explained. “While yes, Eruaistaniel is older than Léonidas, she too is eligible to claim Anthel. However, the spear Anthel is sexist and demands the Male Heir… Trust me, if we could, we would have by now.”

    “Borya!” A Fate-Bane Dragon approached us. “We found Léonidas!”

    “Good, thank you, Diedeschal.” Borya replied. He turned to me. “Blades, can you fly fast?”

    “Yes.” I replied.

    “Go to Master Eon. Bring Back the Heir.”

    With that, I sprang into the air and rushed through the Skylands at whatever speed my wings could carry me. While I was on my way back, I noticed a small band of Outlanders open up a dark stone gate in the mountains. I followed them, and hid behind a stone pillar.

    “Kahzor…” One of the Outlanders screeched. “Awaken them! Awaken your kind!”

    “With pleasure…” The black, furry dragon growled. In a loud, resounding and dreadful voice, he spoke in a tongue I am unfamiliar with. In the common language, he invoked the words:

     _“Out of the shadowy abyss of time and despair, rise up now, Dark Fate-Bane! Awaken from your two-hundred thousand-year slumber! Wreak havoc across the Realms! Claim your vengeance against those who sealed you away!”_

    Each of the statues glowed a sinister green, and a beacon of green light shot skyward. There’s no doubt Borya and the others saw it. The statues in this place shattered, revealing a creature underneath. Each of them were marked with the same markings as Borya, except they’re not the same… Dark Fate-Bane… Over 50,000 Dark Fate-Bane from the Arinokhthelion Era were waking up, and they were angry.

    Full of fear and with tears in my eyes, I flew away as fast as I could.  _We’re screwed!_ I thought.  _There are only one hundred Light Fate-Bane alive! We’re all so screwed!”_

    When I arrived at the Core of Light and Master Eon’s citadel, I told him of my experience, and that we found Arinokhthelion’s Heir.

    “Master Eon, we’re all going to die! 50,000 Dark Fate-Bane! We can’t stand against one, let alone 50,000!” Master Eon turned around and stared out his window.

    “Heir of Arinokhthelion, help us now…” Master Eon whispered. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m going to Earth…”


	3. The Heir of Arinokhthelion

Léonidas’ POV

    “I think you’re crazy.” Kaitlyn said to me. Beautiful eyes, amazing hair, and a personality like none other. She was wearing her cheerleader uniform that day because there’s a game tomorrow. I hope she’s not cold…

    “How am I crazy?” I asked in reply, wearing my marching band t-shirt, my custom-made DJ hoodie, and black jeans. “It’s just a date… Not even, it’s getting a bunch of friends and going to see a movie, then hanging out at my place for a while. Maybe hanging out at my place first, then everything else.” Kaitlyn and I talked for a while, standing outside inhaling the crisp October air, filled with the scent of the harvest. The leaves were beginning to change colors… A beautiful time of year in New York, but also a cold time of year… It’s one of my favorite times, though I could do without the fact that school started only a month before.

    John, short but tough, walked up to us. The idiot was wearing no jacket and a short-sleeve shirt and a crimson scarf. At least he wasn’t wearing shorts and actually had a pair of jeans on… That’s a bad habit my age group has; under-dressing for the weather.

     “Hey guys.” He greeted. Short black hair and an attitude like none other.

    “Hey, John.” I replied.

    “You still trying to ask her out?” my friend asked. “You know you’ve got no chance with a cheerleader.”

    “It’s not just going to be her and I, you know!”

    “Alright then, DJ RJ, what’s the party plan?” John sarcastically commented while making the air-quote signs with his fingers on the words ‘party plan’. I raised an eyebrow at him; Kaitlyn was giving him an awkward look while leaning back. “Bad joke, I know.”

    The three of us stood and talked for a while. We have known each other for years. We’re in high school now. I’ve known both Kaitlyn and John since primary school. They’re two of my best friends. Kaitlyn’s been my crush for years now, though I let her go in middle school, then I got pulled back at the end of that... I’d never find another girl like her, even if I looked for thousands of years! I don’t speak with her often out of fear of embarrassing her and myself, or out of fear of rejection. Although John and I don’t talk often, I still consider him one of my friends. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw the time on John’s watch.

    “Come on, guys… We’d better get to class. The bell’s going to ring soon.” I suggested. At times, I wonder how Kirstin is faring. She’s travelling the world for education, as far as I know. She’s intelligent, my sister. She’s a skilled martial artists and a deadly archer. Her arm strength isn’t half-bad either. I can still beat her in arm wrestling, however.

    After school, the three of us were walking out of the building, still talking about my party plans, when we noticed a hooded man leaning against the fence surrounding the parking lot.

    “Who’s that?” John asked.

    “I don’t know, but it’s best we stay away from him… C’mon guys, let’s go!” I beckoned to my friends, and we walked a bit faster. We decided to walk to my house so we could get some exercise.

    “I’m freezing…” Kaitlyn said. I took a hold of her hand, and it was true, she was ice cold and shivering.

    “It’s not that cold out!” John commented. “Besides, don’t you have a jacket?" Our cheerleader companion glared at him.

    “I left it in my locker by accident,” She confessed. “It doesn’t matter, I’ll get it tomorrow…”

     Being a gentleman, I took off my DJ hoodie and wrapped it around her. Kaitlyn looked at me, a bit surprised.

    “You don’t have to…” She began to protest my actions. Without even looking at her, I replied.

    “It’s fine, I’m not that cold anyway…”

    I felt a chill up my spine, not the kind from cold weather, but from fear. The same hooded man stopped in front of us. Of course, we were all scared… Who is this guy?

    “What do you want from us?” I asked. “Answer me!”

    The hooded man stepped closer to us and removed his hood. This man is oddly familiar… Where have I seen him?

    “I mean you no harm, I assure you of that.” The old man said. “My name is Eon.”

    John’s eyes widened as he asked, “Eon? The hell?”

    “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you three…” Eon said. “Tell me, where are the other seventeen?”

    I tilted my head. “What seventeen? Seventeen of what?”

    “Oh!” Eon exclaimed. “I almost forgot…” Eon revealed a staff from his cloak and waved it over the three of us. Images and people and conversations began to flood into my mind. What is this? Wait… I know… The Fate-Bane, my nineteen companions, the Realms, all the creatures I’ve met, the legendary bow,  _my_  bow, Cúvaeg… All the Elements I wielded, the great deeds I’ve done. Not only am I Ryan or DJ RJ of the Realm of Earth, I am Aranethon of the Dúnedain, Aranethon of the Elves, Kieran the White Wolf,  and I’m a dragon… an Elementium Dragon, Descendent of the First Light Fate-Bane. I’m the Heir of Arinokhthelion, Léonidas.

    “Did anyone else just remember that we have something to do?” John asked.

    “Yep…” Kaitlyn replied. “The Forces of Darkness are back, aren’t they?”

    Master Eon looked down at the three of us, filled with regret and sorrow. “Léonidas, John, Kaitlyn… Let me explain something… There are twenty of you, spread out across the Realm of Earth. Most are here in your town, but some are farther out. If I brought back all twenty of you now, the Forces of Darkness will be so angry that they will hunt you down and kill everyone you ever cared about, including yourselves. The Twenty Heroes of the Citadels; the most powerful Fate-Bane in our time are teenagers. Human teenagers, descendants of the first Light Fate-Bane. I must bring you back gradually, a few at a time… At the most, I can bring back five or six of you, make your presence in the war known, and then bring back the rest at once when the moment is opportune.”

    “What about Anthel?” I asked. “And my bow and dagger, Cúvaeg and Forosigil?”

    “When can I have my halberd, Draichdagnir?” John asked.

    “And my halberd, Celebnel?” Kaitlyn added.

    Master Eon inhaled. “Your weapons are held safely in the Skylands. Come, I will take you there again.”

    Finally! We’re going back! The spell Eon placed on us is now lifted, and our powers are no longer hidden. Our Fate-Bane markings have re-appeared, and we each transformed into our dragon forms. I am an azure–colored dragon, Kaitlyn is a crystal dragon, a Crystallizer like Flashwing, and John is a Shadowdancer, like Blackout. Master Eon opened a rift in dimensions, a portal, that lead straight to his Citadel. We stepped through, and my spirit seemed to be rejuvenated. It felt great to be back!

    “Blades?” Kaitlyn asked. She was staring at the blue dragon, curled up in a fetal position sitting upright leaning against Eon’s citadel. His face practically shouted ‘dread’ and he wouldn’t stop shaking.

    “Oh, good…” He muttered. “Kaitlyn, John, Léonidas!”

    “Blades, what happened?” I asked. The three of us rushed over to him. Master Eon stepped inside his citadel, presumably to fetch our weapons while we tried to calm Blades.

    “They’re back…” Blades whimpered. “Over fifty thousand Dark Fate-Bane from the Arinokhthelion Era…”

     _“WHAT?!?!”_ John screeched. “Start talkin’, Blades! What do you mean they’re back?! There should be no more Dark Fate-Bane!”

    Blades winced, out of fear that John would punch him. “Don’t!” The High-Scalos Dragon cried.

    “I’m not going to hit you, Blades!” John growled.

    “There was one Dark Fate-Bane! Kahzor, he was called… He chanted some incantation in a tomb and the Dark Fate-Bane broke from their sepulcher…  Kahzor… Also took a weapon from the middle of the temple… A spear!”

    I looked at him, both of us mortified. I recalled the Prophecy of the Fate-Bane… It spoke of the Light Fate-Bane’s rise to power once again, and Creatures of Shadow, Beware! Did the same apply to Dark Fate-Bane as well? Would they rise again? Or would they rise again only to beware the Heir of the Light’s Master’s reclamation of the spear, Anthel?

    “Anthel has a brother…” Master Eon announced, carrying our weapons in his arms. We all turned our heads to him. “Rhûthel, it is called, The Wicked Point. It was used by Khazinakhthelion, the twin brother to Arinokhthelion. Khazinakhthelion was highly envious of his brother being born so special, so unique… He practiced forbidden and dark magics to make himself a Light Fate-Bane as well, only for the sake of power. Oh, he got his wish alright… Khazinakhthelion became corrupted when he found a spell to give him immense magical strength… He became a Fate-Bane, the first Dark Fate-Bane.”

    “That’s horrible…” Kaitlyn commented. “Not to mention just plain wrong!”

    “Damn right, it was wrong! Khazinakhthelion was an idiot! A fool! He should’ve known the consequences!” I spoke angrily.

    “The only flaw is that he did… Because of his jealousy, he led the Forces of Darkness against the Realms and the creatures of Light so he could reign absolute across multiple worlds.” Master Eon continued to explain. “Rhûthel was forged to combat Anthel. The two brothers fought until both died. It was during this moment at the end of the Second Fate-Bane War that Arinokhthelion destroyed a majority of the Dark Fate-Bane, and Khazinakhthelion annihilated most of the Light Fate-Bane.”

    “That still doesn’t explain the fifty-thousand Dark Fate-Bane that have risen…” I said. “Why were the Realms led to believe that the Dark Fate-Bane have been destroyed entirely?”

    “That, I do not know.” Master Eon responded. “Both Arinokhthelion and Khazinakhthelion were buried in the Skylands, with their spears in their dragon forms. There is, however, a second prophecy, for the Dark Fate-Bane:

     _Out of Darkness to undo the right,_

     _Evil Creatures born from envy, one fateful night_

     _Cursed Ones of Light, whom wish to be free_

     _After 100 Wars for Realms, to see the Shadow King’s sovereignty_

     _Two Hundred Millennia, the Fate-Bane will linger_

     _Away from the day, until the time is proper_

     _When the Prince of Darkness grasps the Spear,_

     _All Creatures of Light, Beware.”_

    I wondered something… “Are Khazinakhthelion’s descendants human or dragon?” I spoke what was on my mind.

    “Khazinakhthelion bore the Element of Transfiguration, the same as Arinokhthelion.” Master Eon explained. “I assume that Kahzor is Khazinakhthelion’s descendant, and he already has Rhûthel in hand…”

    I stood proud and tall, Blades’ eyes widened as he looked up at me. John and Kaitlyn took their weapons from Master Eon, as did I. With Forosigil sheathed at my side and Cúvaeg on my back, I spoke so triumphantly that it gave everyone around me goose bumps.

    “All the more reason to claim Anthel now… The Light Fate-Bane will return!”


	4. Reclaiming Anthel

Léonidas’ POV

    One would assume that since the Light and Dark Fate-Bane are so powerful, they should do all the fighting, right? WRONG. DEAD WRONG. Fate-Bane are not invincible. The citizens of every Realm have the right to defend their homes and the lives of everyone living in those Realms. With the absence of the Light Fate-Bane for so long, most Realms don’t have Fate-Bane to protect them. Equestria, Estuvarë, the Avian Realm and Skylands don’t have any Fate-Bane, Light or Dark. Earth, the Dragon Realms, and the Land of Beasts have the only Fate-Bane.

    Master Eon contacted the group of Skylanders that Blades was with through a Crystal Communication Orb and told them to disperse their rag-tag team and defend the nearest Skylands fortification with other Skylanders. A Russian Bear Fate-Bane, Borya, will be waiting for us in a canyon. There, lies a door that Blades and his group think is the gate to Arinokhthelion’s tomb. A bit of a long-shot if you ask me, but it’s the closest lead we have to finding Anthel. Oh, did I mention that Kaitlyn, John, and I are still wearing the same clothes? Yeah, Kaitlyn’s flying around wearing a short skirt and my hoodie! She looks cute, I’ll give her that, but right now, we’re flying… Through the Skylands… Just the three of us: John, her, and I.

     _Behave yourself!_  I scolded myself.  _She’s wearing a pair of shorts underneath, she’s fine…_ I looked at John, his scarf flaring in the wind like a complete badass. Then I remembered… I had this marching-band shirt custom-made to have a hood! That, and I technically rolled up the long sleeves, even though I called it a T-shirt before… Whoops.

    “So... Kaitlyn…” I said. She turned her head and stared into my soul. “You okay?”

    “What do you mean?” She asked in return.

    “You’re wearing a short skirt… And we’re flying…”

    “Really, Ryan? Or Léonidas, I should say… Who else besides the three of us are going to notice? Plus, I’m wearing shorts underneath anyway…”

    I sighed in relief… That was comforting. We know nothing of this Borya fellow, and I don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea of Kaitlyn! The first thing anyone typically judges us by are our looks… THEN by our actions as we get to know them better. When a beautiful dragoness comes up to you wearing a hoodie and a short skirt, what would one normally think? Then you find out she uses a deadly halberd, and has two large-muscled bodyguards; one in a crimson scarf and one in a hooded shirt at her sides. Speaking of John, he’s much taller as a dragon than he is as a human…

    We finally arrived at the place Master Eon told us to meet Borya. While we were landing, he was staring at Kaitlyn, or at least it looked like he was… As our feet touched the ground, it became more clear that he was staring at John’s flaring scarf.

    “Which one of you is the Heir?” The large bear asked with a stoic voice, and arms folded. This guy is huge!

    “I am.” I stepped forward. “My name is…” I began to say.

    “Léonidas, I am aware.” The bear interrupted. “I am Borya Thickhide of Siberia. I have five other companions scouting the area… A swan, a dragon, a Wolfirrim, a Sabreth, and a Pegasus.”

    “A pegasus?” John asked.

    “I thought Equestria didn’t have any more Fate-Bate…”I commented.

    “They don’t… He is the last one.” Borya replied. A body fell into the canyon with us, hitting the ground with an audible  _thud_. Four other Fate-Bane slid down the slopes to us.

    “Make that he  _was_  the last one.” A dragon corrected Borya on his previous statement. “Rikikkel got eviscerated by a Dark Fate-Bane only a few minutes ago… A group of them showed up and killed him. Then we slaughtered them.”

    Borya knelt down to Rikikkel’s corpse and shut his eyelids. Borya himself closed his eyes and spoke a few words in Russian. I’m guessing this is how he honors his fallen allies.

    “Be at peace, Rikikkel Sunsmith, Fate-Bane of Equestria… We’ll take his body back to Equestria when we’re done here…” Borya whispered. He stood up and turned to face my friends and I. “Where are my manners? Allow me to introduce my… four companions.” He gestured first to the Wolfirrim, then the dragon, then the Sabreth, then the swan, saying their names as he gestured to each. “Nuarnithon, Diedeschal, Ororackh, Areum.”

    Nuarnithon is a Wolfirrim with black fur and a white underbelly, wearing a white vest, steel-blue bracers,  _really_  dark blue jeans, and a double-belt. He wields the bow Laerduil: Song of Flight. He smiled as he was introduced.

    The dragon is Diedeschal. His scale color matched that of Nuarnithon’s bracers. He wields a sword called Vandangulócë: Dragon’s Promise. He wears a sleeveless burgundy hoodie and long black sleeves that end near his shoulders, and a pair of black jeans.

    The swan is a sort-of flirtatious young lady named Areum… Between her curvaceous body and dual-wielding an elongated scimitar and a broadsword, she was just plain deadly. Her swords were meant to be wielded with two-hands, yet she beasts around both of them in one hand each! The scimitar is Brasseneithron: The White-Hot Warrior. The large broadsword Areum wields is Brassenachar: The White-Hot Avenger. She wears a vest that presses her chest against her body and a pair of short-shorts and black leggings with intricate sunset-colored flower designs on the trims. Dear God, how does blood circulate through that girl? Borya looks at her for more than a few seconds and cringes… I bet he wonders the same question. Like Nuarnithon, she smiled as she was introduced. I bet she’s much nicer and a bit more modest than her wardrobe led me to believe at first.

     I noticed that most of their clothing is nearly skin-tight, especially those who fly… Is it to allow for increased mobility? I don’t know! The Sabreth, Ororackh, a white saber-toothed tiger with black stripes, a brutal long-bladed spear and a large shield. The spear is called Maethorodben: The Mountaineer Warrior. The shield is called Thandorodben: The Mountaineer’s Shield. He wears a pair of baggy black pants made of thick Ukhaladorian cloth and a gray scarf, both with intricate white details. He wore no shirt, exposing his well-built and battle-scarred abdomen.

    “Now… Shall we proceed past this gate?” Ororackh asked. I looked blankly at the Sabreth. Straightening my face, I nodded ‘yes’, and my companions and I turned to face the large metal doors.

    Trembling out of fear of the unknown, I extended my arms in front of the gates so my fingertips could feel the cold touch of the steel. An invisible chill froze my entire body as the small space between the large doors began to glow a subtle white color. After a few seconds, the glow subsided, and with a rusted metallic screech, the gates opened as if they had their own conscious. My guess is that they were waiting for me.

    Beyond the gates was a large poorly-lit temple. Intricate stone carvings littered the floor’s design, and several sarcophagus-like statues made up the walls. The temple was circular, that rose higher and higher until it reached a point where the walls simply stopped. I noticed Diedeschal was surveying the large circular court, as well as counting the number of sarcophagi along the walls.

    Areum walked over to one of said sarcophagi, and dusted off what appeared at first as a nameplate.

    “Borya!” She called. “Look at this…”

    Borya knelt down next to Areum, and examined the nameplate. His eyes widened as he came to a sudden realization.

    “This… This is my ancestor… The first of my family’s Fate-Bane…” He muttered. He then began to read the nameplate. Despite being here for so long, all the nameplates were surprisingly legible. “Aleksey Thickhide of the Realm of Earth. Wielder of Coedam the Earth-Hammer…” When the brown bear finished reading, he glanced at the battle-axe in his hand. “Strange, Coedam is this axe…”

    Diedeschal ran over to us from the opposite end of the temple.

    “I finished counting!” He called out. “Ten thousand and one.”

    Kaitlyn looked confused at first. “Ten thousand and one? Who’s the other one?”

    Diedeschal glanced at me whilst breathing heavily. He nodded, and we all stood straight up and began to follow. He led us to the deepest chamber of the temple. There, a long-bladed spear lay across a finely-preserved corpse of an azure dragon wearing a blood-stained, ripped white shirt underneath a shining silver-colored chest-protector, dark purple sleeves that end around his shoulders, black pants, a flaring crimson and black cloak with a black hood and long white hair and gray eyebrows. On the back of the cloak, the Fate-Bane markings are sewn in white Elvish runes. Even while lying down, this dragon appeared tall, six and a half feet at least. This is him. This is Arinokhthelion.

    “Behold, my friends…” I said. “Behold the origin, the very first of our kind. This is Arinokhthelion of the Realm of Earth, First of the Light Fate-Bane.”

    You have no idea how nervous I am at this moment… I was hesitant to take the spear Anthel from my ancestor’s corpse. This is nerve-racking. What if the spear rejects me like it did my sister? What if I’m not the true Heir of Arinokhthelion?

    “What the hell are you waiting for?” John asked. “Just take it, it’s right there!”

    “Shut up, John…” I snapped back.

    “Dude, it’s right there. Just grab it.”

    “Shut up, John…”

    “Did I mention it’s right there?”

     _“SHUT UP!!!”_ I yelled, spitting a bit of lightning at my friend. I pointed Anthel directly at John, as if I were about to impale him. I looked down at my hand, grasping the ancient spear. “Thanks, John.”

    With eyes widened, John raised his hands up to his face. He froze, and a few seconds later he formed two thumbs-up with his hands, then smiled another few seconds after that. Kaitlyn was staring at John and I, blushing. Ororackh raised an eyebrow at us, with a confused look on his face. Diedeschal and Areum were snickering, attempting not to burst into laughter. With his arms crossed, Borya was smirking. We had a short period of humor before the temple itself started to rumble and shake. We stepped out of the chamber to find the eyes on each of the sarcophagi glowing. Small chunks of the ceiling fell down to the floor as the sepulcher themselves began to crack and shatter. Borya’s ancestor, Aleksey, emerged from his case, and growled angrily. Bird Fate-Bane flew down from the ceiling. Dragons, Horses, Pegasi, Unicorns, Aduialdorians, Ukhaladorians, broke free from their prisons. One group of Fate-Bane, about 100 strong, were large-muscled, groundhog-looking creatures… These are Mabu, creatures who live in the Skylands.

     The awakened Fate-Bane surrounded our little group, each one with intimidating, agitated stares that pierced our very souls. Aleksey walked up to Borya.

    “Are you my descendant?” Aleksey asked. “A Thickhide?”

    Borya, the stoic Russian bear, froze in fear. With eyes widened he nodded. “Yes.” He responded in a voice that was inaudible.

    “I see that you have Coedam. I could not be more proud to find out that after two hundred thousand years, my weapon is still in service.” Aleksey glared at me, widened his eyes and smiled as he noticed that I wielded Anthel.

    “Before you ask…” I said. “Yes, I am the Heir of Arinokhthelion.”

    Aleksey wrapped his arm around Borya’s shoulders. “Rejoice!” Aleksey cheered. “The Heir of Arinokhthelion has reclaimed the Spear!” The surrounding Fate-Bane cheered and celebrated, some tossing their hoods and hats into the air. To kill the moment, John announced,

    “Now is not the time to celebrate! The Forces of Darkness are practically dominating the Realms, each and every one of them!”

    I nodded to John. “It is true. The Heir of Khazinakhthelion has also reclaimed the Spear, Rhûthel. Fifty thousand Dark Fate-Bane are free, and there are only ten thousand of us. It’s better than none...” I explained. “There is a war being fought. Even without the Dark Fate-Bane, the Forces of Darkness are sweeping across the Realms, and the citizens struggle to hold them back. The war has been going on for three weeks, yet look at the advancement our enemies have made.” I led the Fate-Bane out of the tomb and to the edge of the floating island that this canyon was on. Don’t forget, we’re in the Skylands: an endless sea of clouds and floating islands that vary in size.

    “Leo…” Kaitlyn said to me. “Look.” She pointed to Areum, Diedeschal, and Ororackh. They were meeting their ancestors for the first time. It made me smile as a tear escaped from my eye. I wiped the tear away, and then I looked out into the vast Realm of the Skylands.

    “Send word throughout the Realms…” I told my allies.

    “What do we tell them?” Borya asked. I turned around, and with a serious look about my dragon face, I replied proudly:

    “The Fate-Bane have returned…”


	5. Outnumbered

Chapter 5: Outnumbered

    I’m so glad most of the Fate-Bane we unearthed can fly… All ten thousand of us went back to Master Eon’s citadel, near the Core of Light.

    “Well then…” Eon muttered. “Ten thousand. That’s a lot, don’t you think, Blades?” The Portal-Master looked at Blades, whose eyes were completely enlarged, and at a total loss for words.

    “Yeah, it was a bit of a shock to us, too…” I commented. “However, our Enemy’s numbers are still much greater than our own! Even with ten thousand more Light Fate-Bane, we still don’t have enough power!”

    One of the Human Fate-Bane from Estuvarë stepped forward to speak his thoughts. “With all due respect, Portal-Master, we can only wish upon our countless stars to win this war, based upon what the Heir and his companions have already told us.”

    I nodded at the masked man, and turned my head back at Master Eon.

    “We need more soldiers.” I said.

    Master Eon stroked his beard whilst leaning on his staff. It was clear that he was deep in his mind. This situation had me thinking as well… There aren’t many more men, women, or young recruits left to join their Realm’s defenses. Estuvarë has no cause to join the war, as it is still untouched. This reminded me… How is Equestria faring?

    Cayus’ POV

    “Where the hell is the secondary force?!” Kinyi yelled. “Did they get wiped out?!”

     Our fortress on the outskirts of Baltimare, one of our important cities in Equestria, is under siege by Haíllangoran’s Timberwolves. Why aren’t they attacking Griffonstone or the Dragon’s Land?  Why is Haíllangoran only interested in Equestria? On another note, why do the other Realms refer to us as the Realm of Equestria? Our Realm is actually separated into three kingdoms: The Kingdom of the Equines, the Griffons, and the Dragons. My best guess is that Equestria is the most famous and well-known of the three… We were taking cover behind the fortress’ walls. Of course, the commanders, my friends, and other Astral Guard soldiers were up on the upper battlements when the first catapult shell was fired.

    “Are they finished barricading the gates?” Queras asked.

    “No, sir!” A Star Warrior replied. “They’re still bringing in the reinforcement materials from the storeroom!”

    “Work on it faster!”

    “Yes, sir!”

    My sister, Calista, peered over the wall, and she almost got nailed in the eye with a crossbow bolt.

    “Volley!” She called to Kinyi. The commander looked up to see a rain of arrows about to fall upon us. His eyes widened, and he yelled down to the forces on the ground.

    “Incoming volley, shields up! Shields up!” He shouted. The normal horses and pegasi raised their shields to defend themselves. Utilizing their magic, the unicorns just used magic shields to defend. I counted 19 who went down with arrows sticking out of their bodies like the quills of a porcupine. Fourteen were dead, and Angelo and a few other healers went to tend the wounds of the other five.

    “What the hell?!” I asked furiously. My eyes darted to Soarin next to me.

    “You think I know the answer?” He replied. “I thought our outposts would handle this!”

    One of the Sun Warriors who was barricading one of the gates turned his head to us, just to make things worse. “Four of the outposts defending this city were completely annihilated! The others were taken over!”

     _“You’ve got to be kidding me!!!”_ I screeched. I looked over the city of Baltimare… It’s a major city in Equestria… Most of our war-supplies come from these very factories… Calista and I were born and raised in this city, and we’d both be damned if it were to fall before our eyes! I noticed a messenger approach the outer walls from the city. He rushed up the stairs to Queras, and handed him a note. The messenger tried to raise his shield, but it was too late. He fell backwards and landed flat on his back with a shocked face. He was pierced by two arrows in his chest, one in his stomach, and one in his forehead. Tears were streaming from Calista’s eyes as she grinded her teeth together. I turned around and threw one of my magic javelins down upon the invading forces.

    “I got good news and bad news, which do you want first?” Queras asked.

    “Well, I can’t see how things could get any worse…” Doctor Whooves; code-named Time Turner commented. “Bad news first…”

    “Alright, you asked for it. The Dragon Lands and Griffonstone were invaded by the Terra-Lupinotuans this morning. They ask for back-up, and to that we replied that we’ve got our hooves full here as well.”

     None of us spoke as we turned our annoyed heads at Doctor Whooves. There was a silence, excluding the raging echoes of battle and death surrounding us.

    “What’s the good news…?” Doctor Whooves proposed the question with practically no emotion whatsoever.

    “No, there’s still more bad news…” Queras replied. “Remember our old ‘friends’ the Changelings? Yeah, they’re back, and this time with a few thousand Dark Fate-Bane Changelings and Dark Fate-Bane Terra-Lupinotuans who were awakened when the Heir of the First Dark Fate-Bane claimed the spear, Rhûthel… That, and Rikikkel Sunsmith, our only Light Fate-Bane is dead…”

    “Go to hell, Queras…” Doctor Whooves snapped.

    “ _Now_ , for the good news… The Heir of the First Light Fate-Bane recently claimed the spear Anthel not that long ago, and he’s sending all Equestrian, Griffon, and Dragon Light Fate-Bane from this Realm  _back_  to this Realm to defend their kingdoms.”

    “How many?!” Soarin asked hastily.

    “Fifteen hundred Light Fate-Bane are returning…” Queras scowled. “We’re still outnumbered. There are more Dark Fate-Bane than Light… All of our soldiers will be needed for us to even have a  _chance_  of making it out of this struggle for our Realm alive.”

    Arrodan’s POV

    This is complete madness… Do you realize how many Ager-Hai are practically at our doorstep  _RIGHT NOW?!_  If I were to give a rough estimate and sum this all up briefly and lightly, about one-third of all Aduialdor has fallen into the hands of the Realm of Ager Uruk… Lâkhzûrgh’s not screwing with us this time around…

    One of our fortresses to the east is under assault… It defends the mountain-pass of Carnyidh Orodralgos. My mate Aranelya, my best friend Tirithoron, the Tigreon rulers Kolesun and Tigress, and the Foxiriand rulers Blossom and Johnny went with me to defend the fortress. Carnyidh Orodralgos overlooks the multi-colored Sunrise Lake and the beautiful, but deadly and raging Bloodlust River. This is a vital border between Ager-Hai-Occupied Tigreon and Wolfirrim territory and Free Wolfirrim territory. If one crosses this path, they would be only a couple of day’s worth of travel away from the Wolfirrim Capital: Gath Wolfirrim.

    “Shoot them down!! Put those arrows to good use!!” Tirithoron commanded the Wolfirrim archers on the battlements. If the fortress of Ost Orodalagos is breached, we have nowhere to go…

    Kolesun and Johnny were on the ground with the Tigreon shield bearers lined up in front of the pass leading to the fortress. Kolesun yelled, “Push them back!! Use those shields, and mow them down!!”

    The tiger-warriors retreated a few steps, then with a sudden burst of energy, bolted forward with their thick shields and swords & spears out to trample over the Ager-Hai front lines. This allowed some Wolfirrim archers and javelin-throwers on the ground to fire over the Tigreon front lines and kill the next few rows of Ager-Hai. The Ager-Uruk forces pushed back with their large mutated Ager-Ologs and Ager-Gertheryg. The realm of Estuvarë has a lot in common with the Land of Beasts, but also has a lot in common with Ager-Uruk, including trolls and troll-kind. The Ager-Ologs charged at our front lines, and one of the Ager-Gertheryg grabbed Kolesun and launched the tiger-king all the way back to the fortress’ front gate! He collapsed upon hitting the ground, and he lay there, motionless. Johnny ran to check his condition

    I was worried at this moment… Monstrous, bulky, creatures with wide bodies, tough skin, large teeth... Foul breath... I completely forgot what they're called, but they're from Estuvarë, and they turn to stone in daylight, but not their Daywalker tribe, and certainly not the Ager-Ologs. Johnny signaled to Tirithoron and me on the battlements with a thumbs-up. Kolesun is alive, just unconscious. Tigress and Johnny lifted Kolesun off the ground and carried him to our Foxiriand healers just behind the gate. Johnny, with red hair flaring in the wind, charged right back out to the front lines.

    “Give them a volley!!” I yelled. The Wolfirrim nocked their arrows and released them, raining death upon our long-time enemies. I looked around for my mate; however I had forgotten that the blonde-haired white wolf was on the ground with some other Wolfirrim archers. The lines of Tigreon warriors spanned wall-to-wall, packed tightly in the mountain pass. I think the humans teach of an event called the Persian Wars that used a formation in tight spaces like this? I don’t remember… The Ager-Hai were pushing forcefully on our ranks, breaking through the center. The Tigreon and Wolfirrim formed a crescent-esque formation surrounding the Ager-Hai on three sides…

    “Oh dear Julianna…” Johnny swore. Julianna was the first Foxiriand Queen, and is to them as Christ is to Catholics. Explosions and bursts of multiple elements erupted and sundered the Ager-Hai force. Out of the foreboding mist of Carnyidh Orodralgos, about two thousand Wolfirrim, Tigreon, and Foxiriand marked with strange letters fought their way through the Ager-Hai ranks with little to no resistance or struggle in doing so. These are Fate-Bane…

    “My lord!” A voice shouted through the chaotic hollering and death. “My lord, King Arrodan!” I jumped down off the battlements and onto the ground… A fair height above the ground, and it was asinine of me to do because the battlements were near the highest point of Ost Orodalagos. When I landed I was greeted by Nuarnithon, one of our Fate-Bane stationed in the Skylands.

    “Nuarnithon?” I asked. “What are you doing here?” Kolesun awoke from his forced slumber and glared into the crowd of Fate-Bane in front of us, half of them were occupied annihilating the Ager-Hair force and the other half conversing with my friends and me.

    “Ororackh? I thought you were in the Skylands…” moaned Kolesun.

    “I was, but Léonidas reclaimed Anthel, and whatever Aduialdorian and Ukhaladorian Fate-Bane rose from Arinokhthelion’s tomb were sent back here. I have another task. There are tombs throughout the Realms that contain trapped Fate-Bane, and only a descendant from one of the first Fate-Bane of that Realm can awaken their lost kin.” I stared at my Fate-Bane companions with bewilderment. Kolesun raised an eyebrow at the Sabreth, and Aranelya stared awkwardly and wide-eyed as the Aduialdorian and Ukhaladorian host slaughtered the Ager-Hai force and whatever remained retreated back down the winding roads of Carnyidh Orodralgos.

    “We’ll explain later…” Nuarnithon commented. A large, pitch black Wolfirrim with a gleaming white scimitar in hand stepped forward and planted his feet next to Nuarnithon. He’s wearing a sleeveless white robe with silver trims, and a white shirt with blue jeans underneath.

    The Fate-Bane stared at me for a while; he is the same height as I am. We stared at each other for a while, until he broke that silence. “I am Nuarchador, Nuarnithon’s ancestor from the Arinokhthelion Era. I know who you are, King Arrodan, and you are summoned to Earth by Master Eon.”

    “Eh…?” I groaned. “Earth? Why? What need is there to go to Earth?” At the proposition of this question, Nuarchador sheathed his sword and placed his hand on my shoulder.

    “Recruitment. We must find able-bodied creatures… Non-human creatures… To join our ranks in the fight against the Realms of Darkness. Bring your mate, and the Tiger and Fox royalty. Léonidas and his friends will be waiting.”

    Bash’s POV

    I couldn’t believe my eyes… Fate-Bane dragons, fighting the invading dragons that breached our mountain fortress… We were under attack by Desert-Scalos and Staunch-Skin dragons, among the thousands were a large number of Dark Fate-Bane, against whom we stood  _no_  chance _._ That is, until the Light Fate-Bane dragons soared out of the dawn in the nick of time. Do we actually have a chance to escape with our lives? I was trying to fight, but Flashwing was tightly grasping my arm, with tears streaming from her eyes. She refused to let me leave the crystal-imbued walls of the fortress again. This particular mountain fortress was is part of the Moonbeam Pine Forest to the far south of Warfang, overlooking the Sunburst Lake, across a massive desert. The fortress was under the control of the Crystallizers; Flashwing’s kind. She watched helplessly as a number of her species were slaughtered by the Scalos Dragons that aligned themselves with Malefor. The High-Scalos species, Blades’ kind, are the only Scalos Dragons still allied with us, and even they lie dead at the feet of the Dark Fate-Bane.

    “Don’t you dare leave me…” Flashwing sobbed. “I can’t lose you, too!”

    “Flashwing, I have to fight! I’m a dragon of the Dragon Realms, and I will do what I can do defend my home!” I argued with my girlfriend, but eventually, I gave in. It wasn’t because she shook her hips or bent her eyelashes at me, it’s because I care for her and I love her. “However if you want me to stay, then so be it.”

    I can’t imagine the pain Flashwing must be in at this moment, both physically and emotionally. She got stabbed by a serrated Dark Fate-Bane long sword, and our healers stitched her up after they tried to stop the bleeding for a half-hour. We’re more than fortunate she didn’t bleed out. Crystallizers were cut down in cold blood, without remorse and without mercy right in front of Flashwing’s own shining violet eyes.

    The battle raged on outside as Diedeschal and a brigade of Light Fate-Bane did battle with the Dark Fate-Bane dragons and the invading Staunch-Skin and Desert-Scalos forces. Dragons were dropping dead left and right out there, One Light Fate-Bane was hammered through the roof with his wings cut and an axe embedded in his chest, His assailant, a Dark Fate-Bane. We scrambled around the hall of our fortress trying to get away! The dragon grabbed me by the collar, tore his axe from the Light Fate-Bane’s corpse, and was about to cleave my throat open. My feet were no longer on the ground at this point…

    “You’re dead, Earth Drake!” The dragon growled behind his clasped fangs, yellowing, malodorous, and razor-sharp. From the same gap in the ceiling that the malicious dragon flew through, a navy streak flashed into the room,

     _“Ainútercáno!”_ A voice screamed. The blue streak drew a vibrant scimitar and penetrated the middle of the Dark Fate-Bane’ssternum. As the Fate-Bane hit the floor, the dragon that saved me tore his blade from the Dark Fate-Bane’s body and hacked away at his skull.

    “Thank you, Diedeschal…” I gasped with a hand on my throat.

    The navy-blue dragon looked at me with a smirk on his face. “Don’t mention it.” He replied. He flew back up into the sky and back into combat.

    I sat back down next to Flashwing, who was breathing heavily due do the amount of screaming and roaring her and others taking shelter in the fortress have done prior to the execution of that Dark Fate-Bane at the hands of Diedeschal.

    “A Crystallizer named Sapphire Light died here today…” Flashwing mumbled. “She was my best friend…”

    “I’m sorry…” I replied. I smacked myself in the head for saying that so fast. What the hell else was I suppose to say?

    My girlfriend responded with a grunt following my statement. “At least she won’t have to live in this hell-hole of a Realm…”

    The corridor-gate to our frightened encampment swung open. Diedeschal and a few other Fate-Bane emerged from the dark.

    “It’s safe to come out now…” Diedeschal said. “Whatever Dark Fate-Bane or invading dragons there were are now dead or fleeing.”

    I took a hold of Flashwing’s hand and helped her onto her feet… We followed Diedeschal as he led the survivors outside, where we saw thousands of fallen Crystallizers, and tens of thousands of our slaughtered enemies. Blood, sand, and clumps of rotting scales stained the mountains, the stone carvings of the fortress, and the pines trees below. Awe was the only feeling that filled my mind at this point.  _So this is but a glimpse of the Fate-Bane’s power…_  I thought.  _It’s amazing... And horrifying…_


	6. I Pledge Allegiance to a Dead Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the short chapter... XD

 Léonidas’ POV

    Master Eon was busy talking to a few of our leaders throughout the Realms… We received word from Bash in the Dragon Realms that Diedeschal and his force reclaimed the fortress in the south. The pass of Cirith Orodalagos in Aduialdor is secured as well, thanks to Tirithoron informing us of this, and informing us of Arrodan’s departure for the Skylands, accompanied by Aranelya, Kolesun, Tigress, Johnny, and Blossom. I was socializing with two of the reawakened Fate-Bane: a Dalmatian named Archelaus Kazimierz and a Spix’s Macaw named Severino Adalberto, whom has earned the title and nickname, _Diamante-Olhos­_. Diamond-Eyes.

    “It’s been a long time since I last saw the clear blue skies of Arenthal…” Archelaus inhaled deeply, and sighed peacefully without a care in the world.

    Severino jerked his head to the side, and glared at the Dalmatian with his abnormally transparent eyes that glittered like an intricately cut gemstone.  “Remember why we’re here, canine! And this Realm is called the Skylands now, not Arenthal!”

    “I know, the days of Arenthal are long gone…” Archelaus replied. “Regardless, we must go to Earth… Where is that Wolfirrim King?”

    “He’s on his way…” I replied. “It’s not like he can teleport here. Well, he can, but he’s gotta get from one place to another both before and after he travels across Realms.”

    Kaitlyn and John walked over to us. They had just seen Blades off before he returned to the Dragon Realms. Spyro had need of his skills, and his sword, in Warfang. I overheard that Blackout and Spotlight have succeeded in taking the Western Armory of Warfang, with the aid of a group of Light Fate-Bane. Other Dark Fate-Bane and more evil dragons move against them as we speak. I also heard that Zap, Echo, and the Water Serpents have taken the Eastern Shores of one of the Dragon Realms’ continents back from the Thistledown Centurions. Things are turning around for the good guys… Of course, this is war. Tables don’t turn permanently, and they don’t stay turned for the better. Tables of war shift and wobble. Right now, we balanced them out. I’m clueless as to what it will take for the aforementioned tables to truly turn into our favor.

    “So, Heir of Arinokhthelion…” Severino gestured to me. “How many allied households do you have?”

    “I beg your pardon?” I asked. “Elaborate for me.”

    “Please forgive my friend’s boldness, Léonidas, but there’s obviously some information that Arinokhthelion didn’t pass down…” Archelaus commented.

    John tilted his head. “What do you mean, ‘allied households’?”

    “Allow me to enlighten you… Back in the days of Arinokhthelion when the Fate-Bane were relatively new, some wealthy families and trained upper-class citizens would pledge their allegiance to Fate-Bane and their families. All citizens of the Realms have the right to defend their homes, albeit Fate-Bane are the ones with the elemental capability to do so with such power.” Severino explained.

    Archelaus continued to speak where the Spix’s Macaw left off. “These families weren’t servants to the Fate-Bane they pledged to, they were allies. They were companions, brothers-in-arms, and above all else: friends. I have two pledged to my family and me. I have no idea if they’re still alive or not…”

    “So basically they pledged allegiance to a dead guy?” I asked with sarcasm weaved into my intonation.

    “Pretty much.” The Dalmatian replied. “Other than the fact that we’re not technically dead anymore. Not that we were dead in the first place.”

    I carefully placed the pieces of the puzzle together in my mind… Even with ten thousand Light Fate-Bane, we couldn’t possibly defeat all of our enemies’ armies and over fifty thousand Dark Fate-Bane. Since we awakened the Light Fate-Bane from Arinokhthelion’s Era and we need more soldiers…

    I knew it.  _That’s_  why we’re going to Earth. To find the families bound by oaths to join the Armies of the Light… Ten thousand Fate-Bane each with possible surviving allies each? I’d say our odds are pretty balanced.

    “My first bet for finding my friends’ descendants would be in Brazil…” said Severino. “If I find no avail there, I’ll head for Portugal next.” With that, Severino took off flying to the Core of Light in front of Master Eon’s citadel… A dimensional rift was torn open, and the Spix’s Macaw flew through it. I guess he’s going alone…

    I looked on with sadness and a bit of annoyance as Severino left. “What a piece of sh-”

    “We’ll probably meet him again eventually!” Kaitlyn laughed nervously as she placed her hands on my shoulders to try to calm me down. “Besides, if we decide to hunt him down on Earth, we get to travel to Brazil and Portugal! That’d be fun, right?”

    “I suppose…” I replied. “Anyways, what families do you have pledged to you, Archelaus?”

    “It’s been a long time since I’ve spoken their names… I have two, very dear friends of mine. One family is a working-class warrior family, and the other is a wealthy, influential warrior family…” He responded. Kaitlyn, John, and I looked at him with confusion. “What? Wealthy families weren’t the only ones to pledge their allegiance to a Fate-Bane family…”

    “What are their names?” John growled with persistence.

    “Radocalff-Dealus and Vandekoram.” Archelaus said. “They might be different now, given two hundred thousand years of my absence… Tell me, how much has Earth changed in that time?”

    Kaitlyn, John and I fought back our tears and bursts of laughter that were slipping from our breaths.

    “I think you’d better see for yourself…” I chuckled.

    “Should I even ask?” A voice in the distance said. We all turned to the left and saw Arrodan, Aranelya, Kolesun, Tigress, Johnny, and Blossom.

    “So what mission do we have on Earth?” Johnny sighed as he put his hands on his hips.

    “Find my allies.” Archelaus responded. “I’ll explain on the way.” The doors to Master Eon’s citadel creaked open, and out came the Portal-Master himself. He saw our little group assembled.

    “Are you ready to travel?” Master Eon asked politely.

    “I guess so.” I replied as I glanced at my friends and companions.

    “When do we leave?” Blossom wondered.

    “Right now.” Master Eon smirked as he waved his staff over us, and before we knew it, we were ‘spaghettified’ into a dimensional rift that twisted, contorted, and warped us across Realms from the Skylands to Earth.

     _“EEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOONNNN!!!!!”_ I roared furiously as my companions screamed, hollered, and yelled in absolute terror and pure fright. I’m gonna kill that Portal-Master!


	7. Perplexing the Mind

Léonidas’ POV

    You see, this mofo named Master Eon just magically whisked us away through a dimensional rift across Realms to Earth! I don’t even know where the hell we are! We landed in a busy city… It was late at night, around 11:00 PM. We groaned and massaged our injured bodies as we lay on the blacktop in a dark alley… Believe it or not, it was pretty busy for eleven o’ clock at night. I'm actually glad that the Forces of Darkness don't possess the correct magics to create dimensional rifts, and they have to locate naturally occurring ones. And those implode when fell beasts use them!

    “Oi!” A voice spoke to us in a British accent… “What are you fellows doin’ on the floor, there?”

    All I saw was a sudden blur, and my Dalmatian companion was wearing a menacing growl on his face, standing a mere two inches from the British man. The canine’s glowing eyes were piercing the darkness. “Where are we?” Archelaus snarled with a deep, resonant tone in his voice.

    This guy was about to wet himself! “Y-you’re in L-London! Nice doggy…” The now TERRIFIED man whimpered. “Off the west side of Regent’s P-Park, in the year of our Lord, 2015…”

    “Thank you!” Archelaus exclaimed with a delightful smile on his face. What a guy, I’m telling you!

    “You motherfu-…” John began to say.

    “Okay!” Kolesun shouted. “Watch the tongue, dragon!” We stood up, planted our feet firmly on the ground, and quietly shuffled past the puzzled and bewildered London citizen… Was that necessary, Archelaus? Probably not… It was beautiful at night, the city… Incredibly busy if you ask me. Not only that, every single one of the citizens knew absolutely nothing of the war being fought right now, other than the fact that monsters from the Dark Realms have been invading Earth.

    “Do you have any idea where we’re going?” Tigress asked.

    “Not a damned clue.” Archelaus remarked. At least he told the truth, and I’ll give him that, despite how brutally honest he was. As we walked down a crowded street, we noticed something truly disturbing… Humanoid dogs walking under the lovely moonlight, amongst the humans… The people have no problem with it!

    “You know, I thought that the Earthlings would be giving us awkward looks, but this is ridiculous…” muttered Kolesun. “They’re completely used to it!”

    “The only thing they’re looking awkwardly at is your bare chest, Kolesun…” Tigress remarked. “You  _and_  Johnny.” She glared at the Foxiriand King, who promptly shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

    The only thing is that the people of London weren’t giving us awkward glares, or disgusted expressions… They just walked by us like we were nothing out of the norm… It was odd, in all honesty. We followed Archelaus through the stone-paved streets of the city, towards Regent’s Park… It was a beautiful place. Lush green trees, a nice blue stream, and the residence were walking and chatting about, enjoying the fresh air of the park.  We saw them… Two humanoid Dalmatians sitting on a bench, the female resting her head on the male’s shoulder. The male was of average height, around five-feet and ten inches, with solid black ears and a few spots scattered throughout his arms. Same went for the girl, except her ears were white with spots, not solid black.

    “I got this…” Archelaus whispered to us. He broke from our little group and made his way over to the spotted couple. He sat himself down on the bench next to theirs, and I saw the whole thing. The male glared at Archelaus. The female Dalmatian looked up at her mate, and he gestured to the Fate-Bane. The two scooted across the bench to get closer to Archelaus.

    “Beautiful evening, don’t you think?” The male asked Archelaus with a bright smile across his face.

    Archelaus replied with a deep inhale and a relaxing sigh. “Yes, it certainly is.” The male Dalmatian stuck his hand out towards Archelaus as if to introduce himself.

    “The name’s Pongo. Pongo Radcliff-Dearly, or simple Pongo Dearly.” Said the Dalmatian. He gestured his head towards the female sitting beside him. “This is my mate, Perdita Dearly.”

    “Pleasure to meet you.” Perdita said. Archelaus grasped Pongo’s hand and shook in reply.

    “My name’s Archelaus. Archelaus Kazimierz.”

    Pongo let out a soft chuckle and smirked at Archelaus. “Archelaus Kazimierz? As in the legend, Archelaus Kazimierz?”

    The Fate-Bane nodded his head. “Yes, the very same. How are you familiar with my name?”

    “All Dalmatians know the story…” Perdita explained. “He was the first Dalmatian Fate-Bane, and a friend to Arinokhthelion. The myth says he died with Arinokhthelion at the end of the Second Fate-Bane war.”

    “But Fate-Bane and mystical powers of such magnitude, it’s all make-believe. Stories conjured by tale-weavers to entertain an audience and make children go to sleep at night.” Pongo jested.

    “But have you ever wondered if such stories have a bit of truth hidden in their foundations?” Archelaus proposed. “You might be surprised.”

    “Oh really?” Perdita laughed. “Surprise us.”

    Archelaus’ face lit up with confidence and pride. His expression practically shouted, ‘Challenge Accepted’. He promptly stripped off his blue shirt and revealed his Fate-Bane marking across his chest. Archelaus’ hands and eyes began to glow a rich gold color, flourishing with Light magic. After putting a shocked expression on the faces of Pongo and Perdita, he clothed himself again, and his magic subsided.

    “Now let me ask again…” said Archelaus. “Have you ever wondered if such stories contained some degree of truth?” Pongo and Perdita quickly jerked their heads at each other with absolutely awe-stricken expressions, then back at Archelaus with a cocky grin on his face.

    Severino’s POV

    Rio de Janeiro. A city of excitement, and a city of secrets… I remember Brazil before it became the nation of Brazil… Desolated by the Dark Fate-Bane and the horrific monsters at their beckoning. The evening sunset reflected gorgeously across the nearly mirror-still ocean, waves crashing gently on the soft sand. The city itself was packed with ecstatic citizens, throwing confetti, dancing, jamming about with instruments at hand… Reminds me of more peaceful times without the worry of war. I’m on a mission… I’m not here to go gallivanting with some pretty humanoid bird girl… That reminds me, since when did humanoid avians become part of the population here? Only other avians I’ve seen similar to that were in the Light Avian Realm, referred to by the other Realms as Galadaewendor. Not to be confused with the Dark Avian Realm, Mornaewendor. I paced about the roads of the city aimlessly… It would be so much easier to fly, but then I’d be too obvious.

     _Whoever bears the triple-weapon; a sword, axe, and hammer in one, is the descendant of my closest friend…_  I thought.  _That’s who I’m looking for…_

    From a great distance, I heard a voice, a teenage male’s voice, invoke a powerful Aitahrspell…  _“Aitahrsanwecenda.”_

    My head began to shake and ring violently, the pain is unbearable… I yelled, screamed, and cawed as loud as I could. I looked around frantically, but no one could hear me, help me, see me… I whipped myself around, and there stood my assailant… A blue dragon with shoulder-length straight black hair, a pair of black jeans, a red, grey, and green plaid flannel shirt and a pair of glasses. The Fate-Bane markings were apparent on the side of his neck.

    “I know of what you seek.” The Fate-Bane dragon’s voice resonated cleanly and clearly. No one I know of has a voice similar to this boy. “I can help you find them. My Memory Element studies more than just your past experiences, but past relatives. It can find any connection desired.”

    “Thank you for the information…” I snapped. “How do I know you’re not a Dark Fate-Bane?”

    “Look at my long-bladed sickle… Dark Fate-Bane can’t touch this weapon.” The dragon presented to me his glaive; I knew exactly to whom it belonged. It belonged to Dimaano the Untouchable, one of the early Light Fate-Bane during the Arinokhthelion Era… A human. His sickle is said to be so sharp and durable, it can create a fine slice through any substance. Legend has it that Dimaano forged the blade at the highest peak of a mountain during a catastrophic storm of lightning and fire, and the newly forged weapon split the skies and brought about the sun once more…

    “It cannot be…” I muttered.

    “Well obviously, it can be.” The teenage dragon remarked. “This is the very same blade of which you are thinking. Ristagwelu, the Sky-Render.”

    “Who are you, Fate-Bane?”

    “My name is Christian. A Hero of the Citadels and a friend to the Heir of Arinokhthelion. Follow me, I know where to find the descendants of your friend.”

    I had no choice but to believe him… If he were Dark, he’d have killed me by now. “Fine, but can you do me a favor, Hero of the Citadels?”

    “Sure, what do you need?” Christian asked.

    “Can you get out of my head now?”

    “Thanks for reminding me…” With the snapping of his fingers, Christian released me from his unusually potent spell… How can this boy know such a powerful Aihtar spell? And at such a young age?

    Eruaistaniel’s POV

    Politicians… Can’t argue with them, yet you can’t agree with them, either. I’m sitting in front of the United Nations negotiating with a handful of world leaders, so corrupt and yet still filled with only thoughts of doing the best for their countries.

    “Miss Eruaistaniel, would you care to enlighten us on these monsters that have invaded our countries? Why are they attacking? Why are they here?” A United States representative has been pressing me with that question for the past two hours…

    “I’ve already explained that, Sir.” I answered. “They have the desire to take over our world, and every other world that’s out there! Have you all not been listening to a  _word_  I’ve been telling to you?! It’s not just your nations that are under siege, it’s your  _planet_!!”

    The room was grand… World leaders seated in rising wooden rows that form a circular shape, with the UN symbol emblazoned on the cold marble floor, the very same floor I’m standing on…

    One of the representatives from Russia had the floor. “Tell me, why should we even listen, let alone offer our soldiers, to some blonde dragon girl from the States, one who’s claiming to be God?”

    “I’m not claiming to be God, sir. God is a step above me. And there is no God in this war… Only Light and Dark. You live by fighting and dying with honor against those who wish to take your freedom away, or you do nothing and wait around to get slaughtered…” I replied.

    “This is magic and advanced beings we have no communication with, nor are we even acquaintances with! We don’t know if they’ll turn on us.” A British official explained. “These Fate-Bane as you describe and Realms of the Light seem pretty powerful, and I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one in this room who feels they are too dangerous to be around.”

    There it was. That was their flaw. Time to make like a Burglar and exploit it… “Why not? We Realms of the Light are getting our asses handed to us! The only way we can truly stand a chance is with the Light Fate-Bane, and if all the Light Realms fight back!” I elaborated for them, rather loudly, too… Must be that Italian side of me… “You people sit up there on that podium piss-scared, lacking the actual  _balls_  to do anything!”

    Another United States representative stood up to speak. He didn’t announce diplomatically, he practically yelled at me and lectured me like he’s one of my parents. “How dare you talk to us that way?! There are other matters, more imperative than your war of the Realms, Miss Eruaistaniel! The War on Terrorism, Climate Change, Global Economy,  _NOT_ your myths and magics!”

    “Are you aware of whom the first Fate-Bane was? Arinokhthelion, a  _human_! The one man who single-handedly freed this Realm from the Forces of Darkness the  _first_  time! And he did it twice!  _Twice!_ ” I hollered back in respond.  “Do you know who helped him? Humans, normal humans, and only a handful of other Fate-Bane. They didn’t have guns, or bombs, or fighter jets, or anything else you people practically mass-produce! So you tell me, who’s more capable? Two hundred thousand year-old cavemen, or twenty-first century mankind? Before I depart, let me say just a few more things…”

    “Do tell us, Miss Eruaistaniel, as you’ve thoroughly succeeded in pissing off each and every single one of us!” A French representative yelled down from the podiums.

    “My younger brother, the Heir of Arinokhthelion, is out in the Realms risking his neck right now to save all your skins…” I growled. “If he dies on, and in service of Earth, who can I blame for not coming to his aid? Fate-Bane are powerful but they’re not invincible.

    A few guards rushed down the row, wearing all black and bullet-proof vests. They stood by my sides. “Security, please escort our guest out of the building and back into her fantasies.” A few other leaders around the room joined in the laughter directed at me. Disgraceful, all of them.

    Before I left, I spat my closing statement at the counsel that’s been lecturing me for the past few hours I was here. “If you don’t step up to protect this world, there won’t  _be_  a world left for humanity to desolate with terrorism, global warming, and economic bullshit. I highly recommend you ponder long and hard about what unfolded here today. If you want the Realms of the Light as a valuable ally, you’ll know where to find me.” The security guards grabbed my arms, and at that point, two Fate-Bane dragons burst through the doors and landed at my sides, throwing the two large men off of me and onto the floor. The dark emerald dragon, Hezekiah, dressed in white robes, and the white dragoness Aldabella with an orange top and black jeans were my escorts out.

    Flying over the deep blue of the Atlantic was relaxing, though there were many troubling matters on my mind.

    “Did you give the Earthlings a good thrashing, Eruaistaniel?” Hezekiah asked. “You should’ve allowed me to stay and watch you intellectually dominate the UN.”

    “It doesn’t work like that, Hezekiah.” commented Aldabella. “She needed to do that alone… We were just there for emergency back-up.”

    I listened to those two bicker across the ocean… I think that might be the dictionary definition of third-wheeling.


	8. The Dalmatian Plantation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A special thanks and shout-out to my 101 Dalmatian friends on www.sparkydearly.proboards.com since some of their characters are featured!

Léonidas’ POV

    The previous night, Archelaus mortified the living daylights out of our new friends, Pongo and Perdita by demonstrating his Light magic. Our new Dalmatian friends believed the stories that Archelaus told them, and they were now convinced that he is the same Archelaus Kazimierz from the Dalmatians’ folklore. The thing is, Archelaus  _is_  the same dog from the legends, except Archelaus was in a tomb for two hundred millennia. After Pongo and Perdita returned home, we slept in a back alley near Regent’s Park. Not how I pictured my first night in London playing out… That morning, we stood on Primrose Hill, overlooking the park… It was around seven o’ clock. That means it’s about two AM back home in New York…

    New York. The thought of home brought a subtle tear to my eye. I thought,  _One of my parents is a Fate-Bane… Question is which one, and which of my grandparents are Fate-Bane as well? If it’s my mother’s side, then none of my cousins are Fate-Bane. If it was my dad’s side, then all my cousins are Fate-Bane. Oh, dear God…_  Most of the Heroes of the Citadels are back in the US. A sudden realization sparked into my brain. Christian was immune to Master Eon’s memory-sealing spell! Of all of us, Christian has the most powerful mind. He’s immune to many, if not all mental-hindrance magics.

    Kolesun was complaining about the aching back he had, since he slept on a trash bag… “Why did we sleep in the back alley?” He groaned.

    “Because we can’t go spending the night in a bush in some public park!” Aranelya snapped. “Honestly, Kolesun, use that brain of yours!”

    “Quiet!” Archelaus said. “Our friends are approaching.” We looked to the other side of the hill, and there stood Pongo and Perdita, walking towards us. There were three Dalmatian pups with them… They brought their children with them?! Why?

    “Archelaus…” I whispered. “Can I point out something before they come into earshot?”

    “What is it, Léonidas?” Archelaus asked.

    “Have you noticed? Your friend’s surname is Radocalff-Dealus, and Pongo and Perdita’s last name is Radcliff-Dearly. Think about it for a moment…”

    Archelaus looked towards the ground with a solemn stare. “Yes, I’ve realized…” He replied. “We need them to trust us before I start going about those questions.”

    “Alright, I was just checkin’.” I muttered. With that, Pongo and Perdita halted in front of our little group here with their three Dalmatian pups at their sides.

    “Good morning, Archelaus.” Pongo greeted with a nice smile. He looked awkwardly at the Aduialdorians and dragons. Pongo cleared his throat, then continued to speak. “Mind introducing us to your friends here?”

    Archelaus smirked at the Radcliff-Dearly’s. “Remember those Realms I told you about? Yeah, the wolves, tigers, and foxes here are from a Realm called the Land of Beasts. The green dragon here is the Heir of Arinokhthelion, Léonidas. The pink dragoness is Kaitlyn, and the black dragon is John.”

            “It’s an honor to make your acquaintance, Mr. Pongo.” I placed my hand out in front of Pongo, and with a gentle smile, we shook.

    “Sup.” John said as he nodded his head towards the Dalmatians.

    “Nice to meet you!” Kaitlyn smiled.

    “And these are just a few of our many puppies…” Perdita gestured to the three young Dalmatians standing in front of them. One is male, with a collection of spots across the mid-section of his face. Another is female, with solid black ears and very few spots, though the spots are large and elongated, and they form very dragon-esque shapes. The third is a normal male with no unusual spot orientation, other than that both his white ears have spots that look like the radioactive symbol.

    “My name’s Freckles!” said the freckled pup. No surprise there…

    The one female pup stepped forward. “I’m Kendra.” She said.

    The third pup just stood there with a smirk on his face and his arms crossed. “The name’s Nuke, not to be confused with Nike… That, and you say my name with a long ‘u’, and Nike’s pronounced with a long ‘e’ and the ‘i’ is pronounced like the ‘i’ in night.” The nuclear-spotted pup explained.

    “Thanks for the explanation, Nuke…” Freckles commented. “Quick! Explain the difference between Shadowface and Arcane so they don’t get confused later!”

    “The names aren’t similar at all!” Nuke snapped back. “And they’re the same guy!”

    “Exactly!” Freckles replied.

    “Now kids, stop arguing and make a good first impression on the legendary Dalmatian and the creatures from other Realms, shall we?” Perdita ordered. She and her pups went back and forth with stupid questions and quick-thinking responses like something out of a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit.

    Pongo leaned closer to Archelaus and muttered, “You see what I live with? One hundred and One Dalmatians, my friend…” Archelaus complimented him with a few laughs of agreement. And sympathy… Pongo interrupted the argument of his mate and three kids. “Perdy, why don’t we bring our friends to the farm and show them around?”

    Perdita looked to her right at Pongo, and their kids abruptly stopped speaking as well. After clearing her throat, Perdita replied, “Yes, I guess we can bring them to the farm…”

    It was a bit of a long trek from Regent’s Park to the Dearly estate in the countryside… Why did we walk? Would it not have been easier to fly? Oh wait… Only three of the multitude of us can fly. Damn! We were walking on a dirt road in the countryside with a picket fence on either side and lush green fields expanding as far as the eye can see… Wow, cliché much? It’s only nine o’clock, I shouldn’t be making lines like that!

    “Alright, everyone.” Pongo said. “Here we are. Welcome to the Dalmatian Plantation!” We all stopped dead in our tracks and stared in awe at a whole farm with a large red barn, a big house, a lake, a running track, a freakin’ armory, and a whole ton of rich, fertile crop fields with who knows what kinds of crops. This place was awesome! In the middle of a large field between the small lake and the barn, there was a whole formation of pups with unique weapons, outfits, armour, and a pug standing in front of them, yelling relentlessly at the pups.

    “What’s going on over there?” I asked.

    “Oh, that’s a Bark Brigade class…” Perdita answered. “Lt. Pug trains the pups in military strategy, the art of combat, reconnaissance, and other similar things…”

    “And you’re okay with that?” John protested. “These are your children, and that short-stuff buster is lashing out at them!” I looked around our group, and I saw Freckles, Kendra, and Nuke in said formation, sweating their glands out… Were they late? Jeez, if they’re this afraid of Lt. Pug, how will they face the Forces of Darkness?

    “I want to get a closer look…” Kolesun said. “I’m willing to bet that I could teach these pups better than him.” He, Tigress, Arrodan, Aranelya, and Archelaus walked a bit closer to the Bark Brigade session.

    “W-With all due respect, sir…” A rather wider-than-average pup with a blue collar and average spots with two white ears stuttered. “I’m not exactly the best fit for this type of _\- OOWWW!!!_ ” Lt. Pug sent his fist rocketing across the pup’s face… What the hell is wrong with him?! This guy’s like a drill sergeant! How do Pongo and Perdita not know about this?!

    “I don’t care  _what_  you say you can’t do, Rolly!" hollered Lt. Pug. “I say you’re going to be on the assault team and not with the vanguard,  _GOT IT?!_ ”

    “What the hell?!” Rolly screeched. “Sir, I’m a High-Defender! Heavy offense isn’t my strongest point!”

    “Then you need to work on that, Cadet! A bunch of weak, pathetic pups, the lot of you!” Lt. Pug turned towards Kolesun and Tigress, then shrieked, “ _CAAAATSSSS!!!”_  and lunged at Kolesun. The tiger blocked the pug’s axe and sword with his own two-handed broadsword.

    “The hell are you doing?!” Kolesun questioned. “What is wrong with you?!”

    “You’re a cat!” Lt. Pug replied. The two were frozen in a stalemate, their blades locked together with the occasional spark flying out from the point of contact. “An enemy of all canines… I know your plans, you feline foes want to take over the world in your Great Cat Invasion!!”

    “You’re insane!” I intervened. “Where the hell do you get your information from?!”

    “That’s classified, dragon!” Lt. Pug yelled at me. He and Kolesun continued to clash steels.

    “Hey, Leo…” Kaitlyn said to me. “This guy’s insane.” As if from out of the shadows, a pup with half his face completely black appeared out of nowhere, and drove his curved daggers into the shoulders of Lt. Pug, forcing him to the ground.

    “He’s unconscious for now…” The pup grinned. “I’m sick of him, too, believe me. I'm Arcane.”

    “Thanks…” Kolesun gasped for air… That fight didn’t last long, and the Tigreon King was nearly exhausted and out of breath… Exactly how powerful are the Radcliff-Dearlys?!

    “Léonidas…” Archelaus said as he placed his hand on my shoulder. “Do you sense it?”

    There was an uneasiness about the air… I took a few steps closer to the barn, and the magical presence became stronger. I feel it in my gut… Every Realm is connected somehow, and I sense something very dangerous on this farm… A Multi-Dimensional Rift, and a natural one, too. Unlike normal Dimensional Rifts that take you from one specific Realm to another specific Realm, Multi-Dimensional Rifts take you to whatever Realm you want.

    “There’s a strange magical presence here…” I muttered. “Have you guys every experienced any unusual, other-worldly anomalies?”

    There was a silence for a while, then one pup stepped forward. He had an asterisk-shaped spot on his right arm. “Well, yes.” Said the pup. “Sometimes, some of our belongings would disappear, like my growth ray for example. Hours later, they would reappear from a small shockwave of blue and green energy. Not any type of magic I’ve ever seen.”

    “What’s your name, kid?” I asked.

    “Clayton Dearly.” He replied. “May I ask yours?”

    “Léonidas, Heir of Arinokhthelion.” The pups stared at me with widened eyes and large glowing smiles. Apparently, they’ve already hear stories of the Fate-Bane. “Where do these anomalies keep happening?” I questioned.

    Clayton beckoned to us as he ran towards the barn doors. We followed him inside, and within an igloo of hay bales was the rift… It was outlined with purple, softly radiating the color while the fill of the rhombus-esque shape was green and blue.

    “Things just got so weird for me…” Johnny said. “This rift can take you to any Realm you want, right?”

    “Yes…” Archelaus replied. “What are you thinking?”

    “Screw this, I’m going back to Aduialdor!” Johnny yelled as he ran through the rift, while he quickly followed by his mate, Blossom. There was an unnerving silence in the barn for a few moments, all of us unsure of whether or not the two Foxiriand-nobilities survived.

    “Is he dead?” Pongo asked.

    “No, I’m not.” A voice resonated angrily. “But we’re smack in the middle of Tigreon Territory…”

    A thought occurred to me… The Dalmatian Plantation just became more imperative than ever… Normally, to get to all the Realms from one Realm, you’d have to utilize the Core of Light in the Skylands… But  _this_  changes a lot of things. The Dalmatian Plantation became as important to both the Forces of Light and Dark as much as Warfang means to the dragons. As much as Canterlot means to the Equestrians, and as much as the Core of Light means to the Skylanders...

    “Arrodan, do you have a battalion or two to spare?” I asked.

    “Why?” He replied. “We have enough problems in Aduialdor, and all our soldiers are needed!”

    “Remember how natural dimensional rifts instantly decay when a large force of Dark creatures use them? Yeah, Multi-Dimensional Rifts don’t… They stay open, and they can be controlled.” I explained. “Arrodan, Aranelya, go back to Aduialdor for now. If the Forces of Darkness find this place, we’re gonna get screwed.” The two humanoid wolves, with their bows and arrows, stepped through the rift and back to their own Realm. They were followed by Kolesun and Tigress.

    “So that’s that for now…” Archelaus commented.

    Pongo was stuttering on words of gibberish trying to figure out what just happened. “Wh-What?!” He exclaimed. “Can someone explain what’s going on?!”

    “Look, Dimensional Rifts are the passageways between Realms…” Archelaus explained. “The Armies of the Light, AKA us, can create them with our magic. The Forces of Darkness, AKA the Enemy, can’t. They have to find naturally occurring rifts. All Realms are connected somehow, remember that, Pongo.”

    John shrugged his shoulders and stepped forward to speak. The other pups began to rebuild the igloo of hay bales around the rift. “Dimensional rifts decay as more and more monsters use them. Eventually, they become unstable and implode. Then the Forces of Darkness are scattered throughout two Realms… Bad because they have a reduced force in the other Realm they wanted to go to, but good because they’re there anyway.”

    John was going to continue explaining all this complicated mumbo-jumbo, but Pongo interrupted him. “I think I get it… Forces of Darkness, Armies of the Light, multiple Realms at stake…” He gestured to his mate. “Perdy, can I have a moment? I think we need to go have a talk with your brother…”

    “Beamer?” Perdita gasped. “Why?”

    “Just… Come on…” Pongo and Perdita slowly backed away from the remnants of my little fellowship and walked towards the house next to the barn.

    The pups promptly encircled our little group.

    “I want to fight the Forces of Darkness!” Freckles exclaimed.

    “Nobody messes with the Radcliff-Dearlys!” Another pup cheered. “The enemies will have to face the might of Patch, the Lightning Spartan!” The other Dalmatian pups laughed a bit. Kendra was practically clinging onto Kaitlyn.

    “You’re pretty. And strong!” Kendra said to my friend. “I like you!”

    I grinned deviously at Kaitlyn, who then showed me what her face looks like in an annoyed scowl. She looked back at Kendra, and she said, “I don’t whether to pet you, hug you, or just stand here right now…” Kaitlyn giggled a bit. Our moment of rare joy was cut short when a pup treaded towards the barn dragging a corpse with him. The pup wielded a massive cruciform-shaped shield, with an elongated crucifix sword. He wore a crucifix amulet around his neck and one of his ears was had a formation of spots in the shape of a crucifix, while the other ear was solid black. Was it stereotypical of me to expect this pup to be carrying a Bible?

    “Hyperion?” Patch said. “What the hell?”

    “Who’s that he’s dragging?” Asked the Dalmatian girl with blue bows on her ears standing next to Patch.

    “I don’t know, Priscilla…”

    “This can’t be good…” Clayton commented.

    Hyperion tossed the corpse in front of the Bark Brigade class. “This monster tried to knife me… I couldn’t believe how strong he was, and I used my shield the entire time! From the looks of it, whatever army this monster was in, he was a low-ranking scout.”

    One glance at the body, and I knew exactly which army it was from. Kaos’ Outlanders. The corpse’s scales were a black color with red and white gashes, long white hair, dark clothing and a pair of now-shredded wings. An Outlander dragon, and it was indeed a low-ranking scout…

    “Is anyone here an engineer or someone who knows how to handle technology?” I asked in a frightened state. A larger force would be approaching if a scout is here, and that means the enemy knows of the farm, and the invaluable magic here.

    “I am!” Answered a pup with a few black spots and brown paws. “Name’s Sandy Wilco!”

    “Sandy, I need you to contain the dimensional rift, no one goes in or out!”

    “Will do!”

    Archelaus was completely distraught with fear. I don’t think  _this_  is how he envisioned meeting the descendants of his best friend. “Agamemnon Radocalff-Dealus… I hope you’re watching over your family from up there…” He muttered. Don't get confused with the Trojan general, Agamemnon. The Dalmatian Archelaus is referring to came long before him. He turned to the rest of the pups. “Start preparing! Reinforce all farm entrances! Set up a watch! Get your weapons! Go, go, go!”  
  
     "Rolly, Hyperion, follow me!" Patch said. Rolly stepped out next to Patch, while nursing his bruised face. He and Hyperion went over to the rift and formed a three-man phalanx while Sandy worked with a bunch of high-technology to contain the rift.  
  
    "What's the plan?" A Rolly-look-alike asked me. "My name’s Belchic, by the way." He had one black ear and a purple collar. He, like Rolly, is a High-Defender... Whatever that is...  
  
     "Form a watch around the farm. Let no one in or out, and report suspicious activity!" I responded.   
  
     "Yes, sir, Mister Fate-Bane sir!" Belchic saluted. He turned to the group and shouted, "Guardians, Wardens, and the likewise! Encircle the farm, and stand firm!" A group of other shield-bearing pups followed Belchic in forming a watch around the farm.

    The other pups scrambled about, a few of them dragging Lt. Pug’s unconscious body into the barn. Archelaus took of sprinting towards the house to inform Pongo and Perdita. Kaitlyn, John, and I were going to help the pups with protecting the farm. The Radcliff-Dearly Farm became a control point in the War of the Realms… Wherever I go, trouble follows! The Realms are a complete hell hole… The Skylands is the most important, though… I wonder if they’re doing better than we are. Regardless, the Dalmatians must now prepare for war…


	9. The Battle of Western Warfang

Spyro’s POV

I just finished speaking with Master Eon… The Skylands is safe temporarily, as the Outlanders can’t breach the Skylanders’ outer defenses. My guess is that the enemy’s preparing a full-scale assault on the Outer Perimeter. I wonder how my Skylander companions are holding up, if they’re all still alive… After I summoned Blades back to the Dragon Realms, and he, Cynder, Camo, and I journeyed to Warfang, where Blackout and Spotlight have succeeded in taking control of the Western Armory and the Western Citadel. Middle Western Warfang is under the control of the Dragons. I left Elysia in charge of the forces in the Shattered Vale… I hope she’s not reckless in attacking the Staunch Skins.

Let me elaborate on what I mean by ‘Middle Western Warfang’… Warfang is divided into five sections: Central and the four cardinal directions. Those are further divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower. Yeah… The city’s that big. The gates to the outside of Warfang’s walls are on the middle levels, same as the Armories, Citadels, and Control Towers. The Upper levels were where the wealthier families lived, as well as where banks, libraries, weapon caches, and government buildings were. The Middle levels were also home to shops, factories, and schools. Both working class and higher class dragons lived here together. Working class homes, more factories, aqueducts, mines, and multiple training facilities were on the Lower levels. The Lower levels were also more protected and better defended. They weren’t necessarily underground, but just lower in elevation. Warfang is a layered city from the ground up.

None of that matters now… Warfang is a ruined city. However, we’re fighting for it because of its strategic position near the center of this continent. The magics this city contains, the lore in the libraries, the weapons and supplies that have remained untouched for decades… All of it is imperative for both sides.

“So what’s the plan?” Blackout asked. “Staunch-Skins control the Upper West, and Rune-Martyrs control the Lower.”

Cynder, the black dragoness and my girlfriend responded, “We can gather our shield users, form a phalanx, and slowly advance. Corner the enemy, and annihilate them!” She twirled around her weapon, Skull-Splitter, the double-sided mace-staff ‘hybrid.’ Skull-Splitter is one of the ancient Sentinels of Warfang.

That was the only idea I had at the moment… A normal Greek phalanx was two or four soldiers by sixteen soldiers. Two or four rows, sixteen across. A Macedonian phalanx was sixteen by sixteen… The Draconian phalanx is thirty by ten by three. Nine hundred soldiers. The Draconian phalanx is three-dimensional, since most dragons can fly. Heavy infantry and archers on the bottom, lancers and javelin-throwers in the middle, and magic users on top. All with shields, insanely deadly. With a formation like that, how did the enemy break through our defenses? Easily, that’s how. The enemy’s Draconian Phalanxes were just stronger… Our version of the phalanx got us this far in the month or so that the war’s been going on. Without it, there would have been a dramatic increase in casualties. Time to put it back to the test… We rallied our soldiers, about two thousand of them, in the Western Armory.

“Alright, listen up everybody!” I shouted. “We’re going to deploy the Draconian phalanx. Split into two groups, one will attack the Upper level and the other will attack the Lower level. Nine hundred will form the phalanx, and the other two hundred will act as back-up.”

As the soldiers listened intently to the battle plan, they gathered their large shields, swords, spears, bows, crossbows, javelins, and equipped their chest-plates and helmets. But I bet someone’s wondering, why can’t we just fly in general? Not all of us can fly, and we’re gonna get shot down if we do that. Without some formation, some strategy, we all die.

“Who’s going to attack the Staunch-Skins?” One of the heavy infantry soldiers asked. The soldier is a Minotaurian dragon. Some of them have wings, some don’t. We all knew that no one wanted to perform that deed. Staunch-Skins are vicious, resilient, and nearly impossible to kill… Their hides are unimaginably sturdy. Last time I faced one, it took nearly thirty five well-placed axe strokes to break through the calf of the leg. He finally died when I drove the pike end of my weapon through his chin and up into the brain, but there’s an extra thin layer of plated scales around the neck and back of the head I had to break through first. Even a thin layer can make a lot of difference with Staunch-Skin hides. Any other dragon would experience little to no change in protection.

“Flip a coin?” suggested Spotlight. The white dragoness reached into her pocket and pulled out a coin. “Heads and Spyro’s group attacks them. Tails, and Blackout’s group will attack them.”

“Sure.” Blackout nodded without hesitation. That Shadowdancer… We all know he wants to woo Spotlight…

“Fine…” I reluctantly agreed. I’m technically the High-Draconian Admiral- Marshal of the Dragon Realms’ forces, I should be calling the shots! High-Draconian Admiral-Marshal is the highest rank in the Dragon Realms military. The lowest is Cadet, then Esquire, Corporal, Officer, Captain, Sergeant-Officer, Sergeant-Captain, Sergeant-General, Third Commander, Second Commander, First Commander, High-Draconian Commander, High-Draconian Admiral, High-Draconian Marshal, and _finally_ High-Draconian Admiral-Marshal.

I know, a lot of ranks.

Spotlight flipped the coin, and announced the result… Hearts were pounding, adrenaline was rushing through our veins, and the anxiety level was through the roof. “Tails.”

“ _YES!!!_ ” I cheered. Thank the Chronicler it wasn’t me!! Yay! “Alright, now let’s get a move on! Form up, and march!” With that, the eleven hundred under my command followed me out of the armory and through the ruined city, towards the causeway to the Lower levels. Let’s just say, Blackout wasn’t too keen with the outcome… As we approached the causeway, as it turns out, it was too narrow for us to go in thirty by ten…

“So now what?” A soldier asked. I scrunched up my face in annoyance… It was a simple fix, we just had to reduce our dragon-power on the sides…

“Reverse Dimensions!” I yelled as I waved and twirled my battleaxe around in the air above my head. “Reverse Dimensions!”

The phalanx split, and adjusted the formation. Now, instead of thirty across and ten back, it was ten across and thirty back, still with three layers; heavy infantry on the bottom, lancers in the middle, mages on top. As we approached, I heard a loud voice yell, piercing through the air in tongue I am not familiar with… I noticed at the last second as it suddenly became darker. The sun was blocked by arrows and magic, raining down on us from above…

“Shields up!!!” Cynder screeched. The phalanx surrounded themselves with their shields. The dragons on the perimeter protected the sides while the dragons in the middle protected their heads. From what I could see, no one went down.

“They see us!” Camo reported. No shit, Sherlock! “Let’s run them down, Spyro!”

“Charging Speed, let’s go!” I commanded, and the phalanx charged simultaneously at that of our enemy. The phalanxes collided, and some on the front lines were impaled with spears and pikes. A horrific sight to start the battle! We let loose our battle-cries, arrows and spears, charging forth at our opponents. The sky became dimmer, and the stone-carved floors of Warfang became stained with the blood of dragon-kind. Red. I hacked away at the Rune-Martyr in front of me, and with his magic, grabbed my arm and began to inject acid along my scales! Steam, smoke, and my blood emitted from the dragon’s grasp… This one is using the element of Poison! I forced the blade of my battleaxe into his face, and he fell back, dead as can be. I was pulled back into the phalanx by a few soldiers. The dragons on the front lines bore witness to that event, and their screams became darker, louder, and more resonant as they began to viciously hack and cut their path through the Rune-Martyr ranks.

Dragon after dragon fell to the ground, both on our side and our enemy’s. I’m afraid that they died for nothing, as the Rune-Martyrs continued to push against us. The other phalanxes flying above shared the same struggle, sacrificing more of us… More of us being slaughtered like pigs… More of us losing our lives to a murderous entity that bears an unquenchable thirst for the blood of those who dare to fight for their freedom.

“Damnit!” I growled in sheer agony. The scales on my arm were burned off, and the muscles underneath were scorched… Even my blood boiled away, and my exposed blood vessels were tipped with dark green, cauterized by acid…

“Admiral-Marshal!” A Drake called to me, whilst holding back our enemies with his scarred shield and bloody face. “May I suggest the Staggered Arrow formation?”

“Yeah! Absolutely! Let’s cut the bastards down!” The dragons around agreed. I looked around, arrows and magic and spears flying overhead. They were reaching the middle of the phalanx… Both forces experienced this, and both centers were starting to fail. Ours, more so.

I looked around, and though it seemed like we were being pushed back, we had actually advanced a bit, and we have enough room. We can reform back into thirty across and ten back. It was difficult to notice while my companions’ corpses were falling out of the sky, one by one, like falling snowflakes, floating gracefully and deceased towards the ground that will mark their grave… Warfang is a city of the morbid.

I was worried, though. The Staggered Arrow is a risky maneuver. It creates space between each soldier, on all layers of the Draconian Phalanx. The troops form a piercing shape, like an arrow. Soldiers would stagger themselves per row, creating space between themselves. Whatever weapon we had in our claws would be held out to the side, and we mow down our enemies, grinding them through all rows of the phalanx. It’s brutal, and barely works. We could try the Piercing Arrow instead, and avoid creating space…

“This is a desperate situation, Spyro!” Camo called out. “The center can’t hold much longer, and we’re almost through with our back-up two hundred!”

 _Argh, that’s it…_ I thought. _I’m calling it!_ I turned around and shouted to the troops, “Reverse Dimensions! Staggered Arrow!”

With that, the phalanx’s width nearly doubled… I’m surprised we had enough room to do so. The soldiers used their shields to push back the Rune-Martyr front lines, giving us some breathing room. The soldiers placed their weapons out to the side. The soldiers on the right-side perimeter didn’t do this, as they’re the end of the phalanx. We took one step forward, then another, and another… We were actually going to do this. We charged at our fastest speed towards out enemy, and anyone in the immediate path was grinded slashed by our weapons… By some miracle, we completely breached the Rune-Martyrs’ Draconian Phalanx… I saw an opportunity, an opportunity to claim Lower Western Warfang.

“Split! Split down the middle, half and half!” I commanded. “Surround our enemies, and cut them down!” Who the hell knows if this will work or not? Anyone in the flying phalanxes who broke formation got shot down gruesomely, and it didn’t matter whose side they were on. Pulling that maneuver didn’t come without a price… I saw many  of our dragons die during that Staggered Arrow move. Now, the phalanx is split, ours and theirs, with a number of strays fighting in the gap between the two groups. However, there was still the haunting truth that lingered in the back of my mind… I was gambling with our lives.

Blackout’s POV

_“Fuck!”_

I hate you, Spotlight. I hate those stupid blank eyes of yours, I hate that God-forsaken golden ring on your forehead, and I hate those halos on your wings. I hate all of it! Why did _we_ have to be the ones to fight the Staunch-Skins?! We were barely making a dent in the Staunch-Skins’ phalanx, and nearly half of ours was dead! I snorted, with black fire flaring from my nostrils as I thrust my sword through the eye of the Staunch-Skin in front of me with such force that his hide fractured.  He hit the ground hard as I withdrew my blade, and slashed it in front of me in an arc motion. Four other Staunch-Skins went down.

This was absolutely gruesome. I watched as some of my dragons were stabbed, impaled, slashed, clobbered, executed, and worse. They were getting ripped apart.  I took a step back and nearly tripped on a piece of stone. When I looked down, it wasn’t stone. It was an arm. The sight behind me was even more horrifying. I saw the agony of my friends, the pain they had to endure to take back Warfang. I wondered if it was all in vain. I thought of Kilario. That dumb kid… HE was only one hundred fifty three years old. They killed him... I remember the look on his face; it wasn’t fear or aching. Kilario was calm, solemn, almost satisfied. He knew he wouldn’t die a hero, he knew he was going to die in this city, and he knew he would die nameless and forgotten. Kilario looked me in the eyes and with his last words, left this world satisfied. He knew that I would remember him.

“Blackout!” Shouted the voice of an angel in my conscious... “Blackout!!” I was lost in thought. The most important thing I could think of was avenging all those who died in this city trying to reclaim it for the good of this Realm, for the survival and triumph of the Dragon Realms… “Blackout, snap out of it!!” A quick white blur streak across my face, and I felt the stinging pain for a few seconds. Spotlight…

 _“What?!”_ I roared.

“You were going nightmare-ish again!” Spotlight informed me. I tend to do that… Simply drift away into a shadow, into a dream where only I can save myself, and that’s if I realize it. That is, until someone interrupted the process of entering my dream-state. Usually, it’s Spotlight. I underwent a serious amount of pain, like someone was cauterizing a gash in my abdomen so large that my organs were exposed. I heard nothing, and I only opened my gaping mouth as Spotlight charged away from my and towards the enemies. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw multiple red and tan ovals tumble to the ground, with a splash of crimson staining the floor they landed on. I looked down at my left side, and there was the gash, freshly torn and scorched with fire magic and elemental breath. However, my organs still did not see the deadly light of day. I looked up, and our phalanx had broken. We were surrounded, with nothing but a few lines of shield bearers standing their ground between us and  annihilation. The dragons in the air shouted, screamed, and yelled out for help as the archers and mages bombarded the Staunch-Skins with whatever magic they had. For a little while in the battle, it was working.

Bright and colorful elemental explosions rained down upon the Staunch-Skins’ ranks. They were followed by a volley of wood, metal and our own raw brawn. With my sword shrouded in a cloak of darkness, I swung in front of me, and the darkness sent forth a shockwave  into the Staunch-Skins. They don’t break easily, but they’ll break eventually. With my sword Blood-Bane imbued with the power of dreams and nightmares, I’ll have my elements of Fear and Mentality destroy them… Rip them to shreds from the inside of their own mind… I’ll destroy anyone who opposes the Realms of the Light, I don’t care. The Forces of Darkness have held this city for too long… They’ve always been a nuisance. A constant fear of ours, but I say no more!!

“The front lines are failing!” One of the archers shouted back. “Commander!” I didn’t respond. “Commander! What shall we do?! What are your orders?! Commander!!”

I shook my head around a bit, then glared at the blue dragon. “Reinforce the front lines with what you can!”

“Yes, sir!”

“If we die here, we die fighting for what we believe in!” I shouted out to the small amount of what remained of my force. “We are dragons of the Dragon Realms! Do not be daunted by this evil that surrounds us, for we are the Light!! If we should die in this place, we die for what we believe is right! We die for this Realm!” I let loose the most powerful cry I could muster from within my exhausted lungs. I was complimented with a chorus of battle-cries from the other, one that spoke of triumph, pride, and determination. Our screams meant that we were proud to be dragons of this Realm. We were honoured to die here for the good of this Realm and hopefully, our deaths would mean something. The Staunch-Skins took a step back. Just before our small force clashed one final time with the Staunch-Skins, the right-side of the enemy’s phalanx took heavy damage.

I could hear the clash of metal, the torrents of magic and elements… I saw the splashes of water, the hardening of ice. I felt the earth itself rumble and crack; lightning striking and sparks flying. I heard the sizzling of poison and acid, and the hollow winds of life and dreams. Sounds of flesh tearing against the might of another force that had flanked the Staunch-Skins vibrated off the ancient walls of Warfang.

“Kill them! Ice these fuckers!” A voice shouted. The airborne levels of the Draconian Phalanx pushed back against that of the Staunch-Skins. A few dozen dragons crusaded through the forest of rough scales and solid hides to Spotlight and myself. A purple dragon stood before me with a red scarf and a battle axe that could slice wind. A green dragon with scales of foliage and a long-bladed spear. A black dragoness stood beside the purple one; she wielded a staff with weighted ends that looked as if they could level a mountain. A light blue one wielding dual katana blades stood next to the black dragoness. Spyro, Cynder, Camo, and Blades.

“You guys okay?” Spyro smirked.

“Well, we are now.” Spotlight replied. I scoffed and turned away from Spyro. The battle raged on as the remnants of Spyro’s force and my own flanked and began to slaughter the ever-relentless Staunch-Skins.

“Come on, don’t be like that, Blackout!” Camo placed a hand on my shoulder, however I quickly shrugged it off.

“Why do you always have to be better?” I asked Spyro.

Spyro tilted his head down and glared at me. “How many Staunch-Skins did you kill today alone? Probably more than I’ve killed in my entire life. He walked up to me, and we grasped each other’s hands. “Let’s go finish them…”

“…and take back Warfang.” I concluded. The six of us: Spotlight, Spyro, Cynder, Camo, Blades, and I charged forth towards out enemies, and towards our destiny. Let the enemy know and remember it well, Warfang will belong to the Dragon Realms, once more and forevermore!


	10. Into the Fray

Ezekiel’s POV

    I awoke early this morning… I’m Ezekiel, a black Bird-of-Paradise with a white underbelly and long dark hair I keep up in a ponytail. My home is the Avian Realm. A beautiful place full of unique culture, thousands of species of birds, and the best-looking guys and gals out there… I’m a male model, you see. I’m a model for Feather 7, the male modeling group that publishes magazines, has a line of retro casual clothing, fancy apparel, and we sometimes host musical performances and create music videos. I’m also a member of Ascending Dawn, one of the top Wingball teams in the Avian Realm!

    Wingball is basically the bird form of football, with a goaltender, some birds who spend the entire game flying, some on the ground, and some who do both. I won’t get too much into it now, but it’s a lot of fun, and so is modeling! I was walking with a good friend of mine, Berri, another Bird-of-Paradise. She’s beautiful, I’ll tell you that. She works with the female modeling group, Feather 6, but she’s not one of the models. She does appear in a magazine or photo shoot every once in a while, though. Believe me when I say that the girls of Feather 6 are HOT!!! Feather 7 is still relatively new compared to Feather 6, which has been in business for some years now. Berri and I were walking along the street to meet up with some of our Feather 6 and Feather 7 friends, for just a fun day on the town.

    “So, Berri, have you come to a decision on that date I asked you on?” I asked as I leaned in and smirked at her, narrowing my eyes all suave-like. She raised an eyebrow and smirked back at me.

    “That hasn’t really crossed my mind recently, Ezekiel.” Berri replied. “Besides, when will we find the time? We both work for modeling companies, we’re both on Wingball teams, and what do you even have in mind?”

    “I don’t know… Go out for dinner; catch a movie later, then perhaps a walk down on the beach?”

    Berri giggled a bit for a moment. Dammit, she’s absolutely stunning… “You’re hopeless, Ezekiel…”

    “I know…” I smiled. We walked down the street for a while, towards the Feather 7 building. That’s where we have photo shoots and film music videos. Berri and I entered the building, decorated with ferns in large pots, spotlights hanging from the ceiling, a large stage, a red carpet, and rows of exotic plants placed in large clay pots. We were greeted by many of our friends. The Spectrum Dove Lucero, with his long tail feathers of solid blue, red, and green. The Eurasian Jay we know as Aethelred. The black and yellow Trogon, Jay. Standing next to Jay was a tall white phoenix with a black collar named White Fire. One other guy is a Trogon/Galah hybrid named Colorado. Each of these fine gentlebirds was accompanied by their girlfriends. With Lucero was Columba, a beautiful Spectrum Dove with tail feathers of all the colors of the rainbow. Another Eurasian Jay stood beside Aethelred, and her name is Raelyn. Standing with Jay’s arm around her shoulders was Ria, another Trogon. Accompanying White Fire is Rebecca, another phoenix.

    Rebecca is unique, as she can transform between a fox and a phoenix… It’s really cool, actually. Finally, with Colorado is another Galah, her feathers colored pink and gray: Karena.

    “For once, you two aren’t the last ones here!” Jay commented. The group laughed a bit, and I chuckled along.

    “Yeah, most of the time, it’s you and Ria…” I replied. The rest of us talked for a little while, discussing our plans for the day. We were going to head out soon, however our excitement was cut short by two particular Jays… Marching through the front door was Rikaio, a Molokai Jay with a white front, blonde hair, and black and blue feathers. With him was Ricardo, a Magpie Jay with black hair, and a full white front. Even the inside of his wings were white, the rest of him was a dark blue.

    The two were dressed in typical military uniforms. Shoulder pads, a chest protector, shin guards, skin tight pants, and wing blades… The symbols of their nations were emblazoned on the shoulders and cloth that hung down on the front of the body from the waist. Wing blades are swords that attach to bracers on our forearms, and special equipment that we wear on our wings that can attach to the bracers, allowing the arm and wings to move as one, at least until we need to go on the offensive. Don’t ask me why we do it. My guess is that we did it to compensate for the fact that our wings used to operate as our arms at one point. Used to… Now we need to adjust to new bodies. Rikaio and Ricardo looked down in absolute despair, and it was evident that something heavy was weighing them down…

    We all stared with puzzled expressions at the two soldiers. Rikaio was carrying something in his hand, a scroll with an official seal on it.

    “Pack your bags, all of you.” Rikaio grunted. “You’re getting’ drafted…”

    My heart sank from my chest to the ground, as if someone had piled thousands of fallen soldiers on top of me, and I was forced to carry them all until I dropped and became the same…

    Jay chuckled as stepped up to face his friend. “You’re kidding right? Is this some kind of joke?” Rikaio lifted his head, his dreadful eyes piercing straight through Jay’s attitude and into the depths of his soul.

    “This isn’t a joke, Jay…” Rikaio replied. “Anyone of age is required, orders from the higher-ups…”

    “All of the nations in the Realm are drafting people…” Ricardo added.

    Columba stepped forward and began to say, “Wait… When you mean anyone of age, does that include…”

    “Suit up, ladies.” Ricardo commanded. “We’ll debrief you on the way…” He and Rikaio began to walk out of the building, with Ricardo beckoning to us. We looked at each other with shocked and confused expressions. After a few moments, we followed.

    The soldiers put us on a truck. “So Rikaio…” I said. “What the hell’s goin’ on? Why are we being drafted like this all of a sudden?” No answer. He and Ricardo just stared down at the floor of the vehicle. It was evident that they were lost in their thoughts. Ricardo’s already seen war before… When his home nation went to war with a rival nation, he led a division of the army. “Care to enlighten us on what to expect? Ricardo?” I still received no response. Without even batting an eyelid, Ricardo decided to respond.

    “You’ll choose between three branches of the Realm’s military…” He muttered. “The Infantry Divisions: dressed in black, The Skirmisher Divisions: dressed in white, or the Sky Battalions: dressed in dark blue.” The Infantry are the stationary guards at outposts and fortresses, and they also act as the heavy guard in land and air forces. Skirmishers are a recon division; however they make up the bulk of the foot soldiers. The Sky Battalions… That’s where you want to be. Unlike our dragon allies that get shot down when they’re in the air, we have aircraft, as well as our own two wings. We can better evade incoming fire. The Sky Battalions make up the majority of the air divisions. Of the three branches, they’re the best. You can be a pilot and fly the advanced aircraft, or be a highly-maneuverable Elite Sky Soldier.

    “I, uh… I think I might take a place in the Infantry…” Lucero commented.

    “No you’re not…” Ricardo replied. I raised an eyebrow, and we just stared at him with slightly annoyed expressions.

    “Do tell me why…”

    “Because the Wingball players are being placed directly into the Sky Battalions.”

    Jay chuckled a bit and rolled his eyes. “Well that seals the fates of about half of us…” He gestured to Lucero, Columba, Karena, Colorado, Aethelred, Raelyn, Berri and I. “Well, it was nice knowing you guys.”

    He says that like we’re going to get ourselves killed. Thanks, Jay…

    When we arrived at the recruitment camp, the soldiers escorted us to a tent where we had to choose what branch to go into, and get our uniforms. The Wingball players got isolated from the other recruits, as well… We had to join the Sky Battalions. White Fire is already famous in the world of defending the Realm and such, even though he’s not a Fate-Bane… I didn’t see Rebecca, Ria, Jay, or White Fire again… A Woodpecker, probably a lieutenant or something, walked up to Berri and me, and handed us our uniforms.

    “Suit up.” He said. “Head over to the armory to get your weapons, and then you’re being deployed tomorrow morning.” He silently walked away, and the eight of us had to go change into our uniforms. As I changed, I had a great deal of thoughts on my mind. There’s no doubt that some of us are going to die, but it’s just a matter of when and where…

    I’ve had a crush on Berri since the day we met… A bright spring day whilst the flowers were in bloom and the petals of the cherry blossoms blowing gently along the breeze. There she was. A beautiful black bird with dark, flowing and glossy hair on the other side of the park. I would be absolutely DAMNED if I were to leave this world without kissing her at least once. If she were to die on the battlefield and we weren’t married, then all the light in my life would have been snuffed out. Everything I held dear would have been taken, and there’d be no place for me in this Realm. I’d fly to the ends of the Realm for her. I’d journey to the depths of hell to rescue her. I swear on my own life that I’ll always be there for her, no matter what, and not even death itself can keep me from protecting her!

    After we put on our uniforms, we went to the armory to get weapons… Little did we know, we had to forge them ourselves. ‘”Your wing blades are reminiscent of your own two wings” they told us. We designed their shape, color, length. My wing blades were long, wide, and serrated. They looked like an axe and a saw combined into a sword. Berri’s were elongated, thin, and easy to handle. Later that night we slept in overused, old bunks in a gloomy tent before we deployed.

    “Ezekiel?” Berri whispered to me. “You awake?”

    “Yeah…” I replied. “Kinda hard to sleep on a pile of bricks.”

    There was a silence for a while as Berri tried to make herself comfortable on the bunk.  She turned her head to look at me once again. “What are we going to do about Feather 6 and Feather 7?” She asked. Why… Why did she ask that? I was prepared to accept the fact that some of us are going to die. Then I realized that I was prepared to die. As strange as that sounds, I am. With all that I still want to do in my life, I was still prepared to die. I wasn’t ready, but I was prepared, if that makes sense.

    “As far as I know…” I muttered back. “There is no Feather 6 or Feather 7 at the moment…” Berri turned away from me and was silent. Everyone else was probably convinced that she had fallen asleep, but she couldn’t fool me. I knew all too well that she was crying. As quiet as the tent was that night, I still heard her. I stood up and lied down next to Berri, the bunk barely fitting the two of us. I stayed up the entire night to comfort her. Like I said, I’ll protect her no matter what.


	11. Bonds We Forged

Flame's POV

So, it’s been about a week.

The Blackwind Dragons were defeated at Sky Fortress: Hurricanium, at least according to Drobot. We’ve received no word from Léonidas or Master Eon… I wonder what’s up... We were defending a supply cache in a forest out who-knows-where when a group of Light Fate-Bane showed up! I was amazed! Turns out, we didn’t need no frickin’ word from Léonidas, it turns out that kid reclaimed Anthel! They told us, “Go to Warfang.” At first, I was confused as all hell. That place is a bloodbath… So like any responsible young High-Draconian Admiral, I took Ember and Bandit and flew out to Warfang. We met up with Spyro, Cynder, and a few others. As it turns out, they reclaimed Western Warfang!

“I can’t believe you guys!” I exclaimed. The nine of us were stood around a table with a map of Warfang on it. I thrust my sword, the Uppercut Sword, through the wooden planks and the rotting parchment.

“Can’t believe what?” Spyro smirked. “That we reclaimed Western Warfang or that we did something without you?”

“Yes!” I was teased with a song of laughter from my friends. I think that was the first time I saw Blackout smile! Something’s wrong. Blackout’s smiling. Somebody call the paramedics!

Camo cleared his throat and began to speak. “So what’s our next move?” Bandit studied the map for a moment, and he dragged his finger along certain paths throughout the city.

“I think we should go for Northern Warfang next and open up a clear shot into the Eastern and Central sections of the city…” He explained. Spotlight argued against this.

“We could journey around the city and go for the Eastern first and simultaneously close in on the Northern and Southern sections!” She said.

I withdrew my sword from the table and sheathed it once more on my back. Spotlight brought up a valid point, we could flank and surround them and cut the enemy off before they could retaliate against us! However, they could decide to turn on one of the sections that we already control from the North and South and wipe us out… I brought this up. “If we claim the East next, then we risk getting surrounded and pushed back out of the city from the North, South, and Central. I think our best bet is to claim the North so we have access to the heavier armories and siege weapons.”

Of course, Blackout stepped forth and argued in favor of Spotlight. Of course… “We can surround the North if we control the East and the West, then push our way down and do the same in the South, then just close in on the Central! Bing Bang Boom, Warfang is ours.”

“Easier said than done, my friend.” I responded. “We need to control all four sections of Warfang before we can ever hope to launch an assault on the Central section.” There was no arguing, there. Central Warfang is protected by powerful Ancient Draconian wards that deactivate and activate based on who controls the other four sections of the city. Right now, the gates into Central Warfang are locked, because we don’t control the Northern, Southern, or Eastern sections. The Central section also has four gates; four massive, grand gates with large spotlights… What the hell… Beacon-like objects… They have giant crystals that shoot beams of light into the air. Yeah. That was it. The gates into Central Warfang have giant crystals that shoot beams of light into the air. If there are battles for control of the city, the color of the lights on the gates change based on who controls the corresponding section. Right now, the Central Western gate is a different color than the other three… Welcome to the Dragon Realms, full of complicated… everything.

Trust me; this is a more complicated decision than one might think. Literally anything can go even the slightest bit wrong before the entire operation goes to shit and we all die. 

However, ever since the enemy claimed our city, our forces and all citizens of this Realm were galvanized to reclaim it. I listened to Bandit and Ember argue with Spotlight and Blackout for quite some time. Soon, Cynder and Camo joined the fray.

“Alright, you all need to shut up, and let’s figure this out like civilized dragons!” Cynder exclaimed. Blackout waved his arms about as he turned to Cynder. The two black dragons were up in each other’s faces, as if to challenge each other. Out of the corner of my eye, Spyro left the tent, taking his battle-axe with him. While our friends continued arguing, I trailed behind him.

Spyro walked across our encampment with his head hanging low, taking long strides with each step. He entered another tent, pushing the tarp out of the way of his horns. I caught the tarp just as Spyro let go. He sat down at a desk and equipped a pen. He went into the desk and took out some tall stacks of letters, each with the official seal of the Dragon Realms to keep them shut. On a blank parchment, he began to write a letter. When he glanced over at a list of names placed next to him, he continued writing. A few lone tears escaped from Spyro’s eyes. He sniffled and whimpered quietly a few times. He slipped, and broke the pen; this sent one of the shards flying into his eye. He flew back in his chair, almost tipping over. After rubbing his eye, Spyro, in a rage, crumbled the paper he was writing on. He summoned up another pen and a new parchment and began to write on that.

With a tone that was deep and unstable, Spyro asked me, “Do you know how many of these condolences letters I have to write?” He didn’t even look up from his tedious task. This intolerably strenuous responsibility of his… Spyro chooses to undertake leading the Dragon Realms’ forces alone… He has the rest of us! Why doesn’t he see that? Why does he choose to act as if we’d abandoned him?

I took a wild guess. “A few thousand…?”

“Two-thousand and thirty-four, to be exact…” Spyro replied. “That’s two-thousand and thirty-four more than I wanted to write.”

I shook my head. “It has to be done, my friend.” I said.

“You think I don’t know that?!” Spyro’s eyes overflowed with fury as he hammered his fists on the desk and snapped at me. The purple dragon began to shake. His pupils dilated as his jaw dropped in grief. “I’m… I’m sorry, Flame…” He sobbed. “Forgive me!”

I stepped behind the desk and wrapped my arms around my best friend. I swayed side to side at a snail’s pace as I softly sang an ancient lullaby in a Draconian dialect. “It’s alright, bud…” I whispered. He just continued to bawl and wail while I tried to calm him down. Spyro had a bit of difficulty inhaling as he was crying so much and so hard… I felt like a father embracing his son after the mother had died.

“W-What’s my problem…?” Spyro muttered.

“I’ll tell you…” I responded. “You act as if you have to lead us alone… For the past month you’re acting like we’ve handed you power a said, ‘Figure it out on your own.’ Thing is, we haven’t we’re still here. Cynder, and Camo, and Ember, Bandit, Hunter, Elora, and even the Skylanders!” Spyro looked me in the eyes at this point, still with tears flooding out of his own, but with his face straightened. “And Whirlwind, and Drobot, and Sunburn, and Sonic Boom, Bash, Flashwing, Spotlight, Blackout, Blades, Zap, and Echo! We’re _still_ here, and we’re here to help you! We’re your friends!”

Spyro sniffled a bit, and then responded. “I’ve already led so many to their deaths…” You could hear his voice breaking. That natural urge of his to be strong, to fight back more ‘unnecessary’ tears.

“No…” I replied. “You led them to a glorious victory…” But in a way, he was right. Due to how many of us had fallen, the reclamation of Western Warfang was undeniably a Pyrrhic victory. I released Spyro from our ‘bro-hug’. He wiped a few lingering tears from his eyes, sniffled once again, and shook his head.

“I still have to write these letters… Let their families know that these brave dragons died in service of our Realm…” Spyro explained. “This is unbelievable… Over two thousand of us died claiming just one section of the city, even with the Draconian Phalanx. That’s a bit more than half of what we started with…”

I shook my head around a bit, with my long red hair whirling about. “We’ve got to make a move soon, though. We could get invaded simultaneously from the South, North, and Central districts at any moment.” I replied. Spyro nodded to me.

“Good point…” He said. Some hours uncounted had passed. Hours uncounted because I didn’t trouble myself with counting them. The morning turned into afternoon, and even that transitioned into sunset. Spyro had finished writing the letters, and our companions were still quarrelling over which section of the city to go for next…

As we all know, Bloodwing Destroyers control the Central. Rune-Martyrs and Staunch-Skins controlled the West, which we now hold control of. According to what our scouts have reported, Draconian Chiropterans and Draconian Vampires control the East. Of course… Those two species have a lot in common, with only few distinct characteristics that separate the two as different species. Chiropterans have more bat-like wings, larger ears, and can use echolocation. The Vampires have longer fangs and more dragon-like wings. That and their scales become darker in sunlight, as if they’re being burned. However, they’re not. That’s just how their scales react.

To the North are the Valley-Wights. They look like partially-rotten corpses. Chunks of scales missing parts of their skeletons exposed… Essentially, they’re zombie dragons. Just without the dying and coming back with a thirst for brains part. They control the Undead Element, like Cynder, except she’s not a Valley-Wight. She’s a Phantom dragon of some sort… Geez, that narrows it down… There are many species of dragons in the Dragon Realms… Some very ancient. Cynder’s species, Spyro’s species, Blackout’s, Spotlight’s, and even Camo’s species are among them.

In the South, there are the Prismatic Draconians; a species that have glass-like crystals growing out of their scales, and Crimson Rushers, a species with dark colored scales with glowing crimson veins that store pure energy that can be radiated in powerful bursts. Both of those species originate directly from the ol’ stompin’ grounds of one of the Realms of Dark: The Underworld; Malefor’s Realm. Both use the Supernatural Element: Radiancy.

With our current force, the Prismatic Draconians and Crimson Rushers will annihilate us… The Valley-Wights will slaughter us the instant they see even the slightest of movements from the West. The bloodsuckers in the East will surely kill us, even though they’re basically made of paper. Their sheer numbers is what keeps them alive.

As Spyro and I waited… And waited… And _waited_ … We heard the sound of approaching footsteps in the evening. They belonged to Cynder, Camo, Bandit, Ember, Blackout, Spotlight, and Blades.

“About damned time… If I knew you were goin’ at it, I would’ve stayed.” Spyro smirked. We promptly bumped each other’s fists at this statement.

“Oh, bite me, Spyro…” Cynder snapped at him. Ouch…

I inhaled through my teeth and leaned towards Spyro. “Tough luck, bro…”

Blades tilted his head. “What does she have to do with this? She’s in the Skylands!”

The rest of us moaned and groaned at what was either a bad pun or a misunderstanding. Blackout smacked his forehead. “Not the Skylander Tuff Luck, ya dumb Scalos!”

“Oh…” Blades replied.

Spyro rolled his eyes and shook his head. “So, have you guys come to a decision?”

Ember nodded. “Yes, we have.” The others exchanged a few looks and devious smirks before turning back to Spyro and me. “When reinforcements arrive, we’re going to launch an attack on the North.”


	12. Arindar

 Chapter 12: Arindar

    Kahzor’ POV

_Those God-damned Heroes…_

_Ugh… I want to put them six feet under…_

_Don’t we need to…? Reinforce the occupation of Warfang?_

    I was allowing my mind to slip away again… _Kahzor_ … I heard a sweet angelic voice call my name. _Kahzor!_ I hate angelic voices. It drives me insane… I felt a torrent of ice cold engulf my head and soak my mind… Water dripped off my horns as I shook my body around like a dog, since I’m covered in fur on top of my scales. After rising up again, I glared at the dragoness standing before me. Vilyana. She’s a blue water dragon with piercing orange eyes and lengthy dark brown hair. Her black eye shadow made her look a lot more mature than she actually is. She took great dignity in swaying her shapely hips around when she walked. Her arms were a bit thinner than average but her legs were very well-formed. Ugh... 

    “You look pathetic.” She shot that arrow right away.

    I rolled my eyes and glared back with my mouth open slightly. “I was thinking…” Vilyana placed one hand on her hip and leaned to the side. She grinned at me with some Machiavellian expression. “If you’re trying to seduce me, it’s not gonna work, even if you are well endowed...”

    “Oh, not you…” She replied. “I’m saving that for Julian…” Her rival. There are twenty-one Heroes of the Citadels and twenty-one of us; the Tyrants of the Citadels. We claimed the Citadels of the Elements before the war began some years back, but those wretched Light Fate-Bane reclaimed it… Léonidas… The Heir of Arinokhthelion… I’m going to kill him, for I am the Heir of Khazinakhthelion! A glorious battle awaits the two of us to decide who will live and rule the Realms, and who will die pathetically! It’s gonna be _him!_

    Another one of my companions entered the room… Justin… a dark blue dragon with turquoise markings that swirl across his face. His shoulder-length black hair was very... what's the word... 'Flat'... His hair doesn't rise and curl like that damned Leonidas' does. His is smooth and flat. The stray stands dangled in front of his forehead and eyes. He has a sinewy build... Not like me, of course... I'm more muscular... And black. Literally. My fur is black. A large scythe is his weapon of choice. Shards of shattered light decorated the sclera of his eyes. He’s a Will-Breaker dragon… The opposing species of those damned Mind-Benders. Both species are at a constant conflict for total control of the Memory Element.

    “My force is ready.” Justin said with his arms crossed. “With the combined strengths of my species and Sabrina’s, we can control the city by sunrise.” Sabrina… She’s a Nebular Sentinel; they’re a dragon species that controls one of the Celestial Elements: Nebula. Some say Justin’s a psycho, and I say that he’s just malevolent and twisted, as are the rest of us… But, on his own level of such.

    “Well, that’s good.” Vilyana nodded. Shut up… There’s not one dragon in our forces beneath the age of twenty human-years that she hasn’t tried to screw yet. Even _me!_ I’ll kill her first before I let that happen. With all that flirting she does, how the hell is she still…?

    Justin _had_ to cut me off, the prick… “Kahzor… I know what you’re thinking… And stop it…” He chuckled. You little snitch…

    “What’s he thinking about…?” She asked. Damn you, Vilyana… The mind-probe over there raised his eyebrows and turned his God-forsaken attention to the slutty water dragoness standing beside me.

    “He’s thinking about how you’re still a virgin, given your flirtatious behavior.” Justin smirked as he turned his head back to me. "Which is actually quite interesting, you are very curvaceous for our age!" Justin rotated his neck back towards the blue dragoness in question. His eyes trailed up an down Vilyana's body with a smirk on his face.

    “Go to hell, Justin…” I replied. You could just _hear_ my voice oozing sarcasm and not giving even the slightest a damn. Vilyana smirked at me and giggled. Jesus, that makes you look even _more_ like you sleep in with just about, oh I don’t know, every guy here! I rolled my eyes towards her and said, “Vilyana, your sexual desires are the least of my concerns right now…” I turned back to Justin. “I assume your force is anxious to taste the blood of the humans?”

    Justin smirked deviously… God, he’s creepy as hell. “Yes…” He hissed like a snake. Not helping with the creepy. If the expression his face is making wasn’t a metaphorical ‘rape face’, I don’t know what is.

    “Good.” I replied. “Then march on the city…”

    Léonidas’ POV

    I started to wonder…

    Why is my name Léonidas? Take a look at Kahzor. He’s the Heir of Khazinakhthelion, the first Dark Fate-Bane. At least those two names sound similar! Think about it, Kahzor, Khazinakhthelion… It was truly confusing how my name is Léonidas and I’m the Heir of Arinokhthelion. The names aren’t similar! So, I began to ponder on a new name for myself… Arinokh? No… Arinor? Ar…. Ar-something… Arin? No, that sounds like Erin…

    This is a problem. I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes… We departed from the Dalmatian Plantation two days ago… We need the other Heroes of the Citadels before we can do much of anything else, since it’s just John, Kaitlyn, and I. Archelaus volunteered to stay behind and further aid the Radcliff-Dearlys with defending their farm. I wonder how Severino’s holding up… Where is he, anyways? Last time I saw him, he went through a portal to Brazil or something… Yeah… To find his friend’s descendants… The Aduialdorians went back to their Realm after Johnny went through the Rift at the Dalmatian Plantation… Little did I know he was just testing it to see if it’s _actually_ a Multi-Dimensional Rift. Dumbass could’ve died! Well, that’s Johnny for you. The war’s all topsy-turvy on us… It’s been a little over a month since it started. John, Kaitlyn, and I are travelling back to Master Eon to see what else he has for us… This is tedious work, being a Fate-Bane… But hey, it protects the Realms, and that’s payment enough.

    I got it! Arindar.

    We were flying high above the clouds of Earth… Probably somewhere over the Mediterranean, when I addressed my new name to my friends. I explained to them the reasoning behind it, the whole name-business with Kahzor, Khazinakhthelion, Arindar, Arinokhthelion... It works!

    “I think you’re stupid!” John snapped without skipping a beat.

    I rolled my eyes. “Damn you, John.”

    “What can I say? I think a lot of things are stupid.”

    Kaitlyn simply laughed at us for a bit. “John, you think everything’s stupid. Ryan, you’re so OCD about everything!”

    “ _I am not!_ ” Both my voice and that of John resonated through our immediate area. Wow, what the hell…?

    I wondered for a bit… Don’t we have allies stationed throughout the Realm? If memory serves me correctly, and I say that a lot, there are a few Fate-Bane stationed in Rome. Yes, there are Light Fate-Bane all across the world, however there are a handful, even with the ones from Arinokhthelion’s Tomb.

    The Terra-Lupinotuans are invading Equestria… Ager-Uruk is attacking the Land of Beasts, the Outlands is marching on the Skylands, the Galadaewendor and Mornaewendor are fighting each other, and the Underworld is attacking the Dragon Realms… And everyone and their grandmother is going for Earth. Why the hell has Estuvarë remained untouched? _That’s_ what’s bewildering me. Or perhaps… They’re already engulfed in a civil war, and are untouched by _another_ Realm. That’s even more frightening.

    John, Kaitlyn, and I dove down and soared just above the surface of the water. This Mediterranean wind feels great against your wings! The cool breeze feels touches you in a way that makes all your problems wash away and sink into the water with the ancient warships that rest on the seafloor. The three of us flew to Palermo, on the island of Sicily. I was right, an Eagle Fate-Bane named Aquilinus and his Roman Fate-Bane are stationed here. Aquilinus sported brown feathers with white speckles on the tails, a white tunic, black pants and a red sash, as did the other Fate-Bane here. His eyes were as blue as the Mediterranean itself. Big, broad shoulders and large, muscular arms. When we landed, he greeted us like old friends. A great big hug, a hand-shake, and a kiss on the hand for Kaitlyn.

     _Take notes_ … I thought to myself. The bright rusted-orange brick roofs and white stone building of Italy… I’ve always dreamed of seeing where my mother’s side of the family came from. Sicily…

    “Welcome to Sicily, Heir of Arinokhthelion!” Aquilinus greeted with a hearty tone. “I’d show you around, but I do not believe you’re here on tourist business, are you?”

    I nodded. “No, we’re not. We’ve got to get back to Master Eon ASAP, determine our next move.”

    The eagle nodded back. “Very well, follow me.” We took a leisurely walk through the streets of Palermo. I thought about Spyro… I wondered how he was holding up… I remembered that Drobot, Whirlwind, Sonic Boom, Sunburn, and the twins Noxus and Zora were technically in the Skylands… They were tasked with defending the Sky Fortresses. My mind took a walk through the Realms… I recalled Queras and Kinyi of the Astral Guard in Equestria. They’re not doing too good, I hear. I remembered how Master Eon thought us twenty one Heroes were the only Fate-Bane left… Boy, was he wrong.

    For some reason… I remembered various events of my childhood. I remembered my next-door neighbor and how we played in my backyard… I remember the game of ‘tennis’ we messed around with while playing a _Dragon Ball Z_ video-game. Now why was I doing that? I was a normal kid before I first discovered my Fate-Bane powers.

    The most horrific though… Was the sheer amount of ridicule and physical torment that went on in my school… The constant bullying I had to endure… Every day was like one of the battle-grounds I fight the Forces of Darkness on; frightening to say the least. The words the bullies used to describe me… The things they said they’d do, the things they wanted to do… The things they actually did to me… It’s like sticking a white-hot iron rod through my skull just thinking about it! All those years were like a cage! A barbed cage that sliced your skin and made you bleed every time you went to move, a cage that got smaller and smaller as you wailed for help, for some escape, but all you could do was scream!

     _Help me!! HELP ME!!! Get me out of here!! STOP!!!_

    The cage got tighter and tighter, puncturing more of your flesh as you wailed louder. The cage turning crimson from the blood, and your loved ones can only watch and cry, wondering every night if you’ll be okay. Be okay… I wondered what going insane was like when I was a lot younger… Then I found out.

    “Hey…” A pleasant voice whispered to me. It’s something in my head… Is it my sister? Or maybe my mother… What is it…?

    No… It was Kaitlyn. “What?” I winced and squinted, jerking my head away from the pink dragoness next to me. The sunlight reflected off of her crystalline wings and through my pupils. I guess that’s the price of having most of your wings made of purple crystals that connect to a bundle of feathers topped by yet another crystal. Now that I think about it, a lot of Kaitlyn’s crystals reflect light on a nearly blinding level. Her four curved crystal horns, parts of her arms… She’s a living amethyst mirror!

    “Kaitlyn…” John said as he covered his eyes, curved markings of a dark blue hue covering his body like some ancient tapestry or something like that… Like a bunch of tornado and hurricane weather tattooed all over… “Tone down on the Flashwing-ing.”

    “The what?” Kaitlyn scrunched up her beautiful face and raised an eyebrow at the black dragon.

    “The Flashwing-ing.” He replied. “Your crystals are shining brighter than the frickin’ Sun.”

    Kaitlyn widened her bright blue eyes and gasped with a big smile on her face. “Oh! I get it! Because Flashwing and I are both Crystallizer dragons, and her crystals can glow at her own discretion!”

    Both John and I rolled our eyes… “That was a bad pun, John.”

    “You’re rubbing off on me, Léonidas.” John replied whilst twirling his ancient weapon in his right hand. The markings across his body glowed subtly, increasing and decreasing in luminosity like a beating heart.

      _Thump thump… Thump thump…_

    Wait… Is that my heart? Or is that his...? Or hers? I glanced over at Kaitlyn again, the sunlight accenting her gorgeous flowing blonde hair. Out of my peripherals, she was holding my hand. Our fingers interlocked like an actual couple, and it didn’t seem like she was willing to let go anytime soon. It wasn’t John’s heartbeat or Kaitlyn’s, it was my own. My own heart raced and raced. My cheeks flushed with red in contrast to my sea-green scales. Then I noticed… She’s still wearing my hoodie. My marching band hoodie with the letters ‘EMHS’ and ‘DJ RJ’ written in a beautiful form of calligraphy. A flowing chart of golden-yellow music bars and some notes stood near those blue-and-gold letters against the solid black sweatshirt.

    “Arindar.” I said. Kaitlyn tilted her head and turned to meet my gaze. I looked over at John, giving me a puzzled expression. “Call me Arindar. Heir of Arinokhthelion. Didn't I tell you guys that?”  
  
    "Yeah, you did." Kaitlyn replied with a smirk and sultry expression. "You're still _so_ OCD." She dragged out the 'so' in that sentence. That's the Kaitlyn I remember. A fiery, take-no-shit teenager.

    Our guide turned around and walked backwards to converse with us. “Interesting choice of name, Heir of Arinokhthelion!” said Aquilinus. “I know one day, you’ll go down in the history as Arindar! Saviour of the Re-…” That sentence remained unfinished. One of the other eagles flew down from the roof of one of the watchtowers  and landed by us. Aquilinus turned around to meet his friend’s eyes.  
  
    “Compliments will have to wait, a city is under attack!” This eagle wasn't exactly in the midst of trepidation, however he was a bit sweaty. A few beads of said substance were dripping off the side of his face. He massaged his hands together. When I'm nervous, my veins bulge out. I noticed this along his entire arms.

    The Eagle was about to go absolutely livid. His face conveyed his emotions quite clearly. Instead of an aura of hospitality, there was rage radiating off of Aquilinus. Planting his foot down in front of him, lunging forwards at the other eagle he screeched, “ _What?!_ Which one?! Where?!”

    “In South America, they request back-up! Also, Master Eon said to send the ones known as Léonidas, John, and Kaitlyn there, should they be with us!" The edgy Eagle replied as Aquilinus clutched his shoulders.

    “That, they are.” I stepped up. “And it’s Arindar now, not Léonidas.” I turned to my friends, who nodded in agreement. I saw it in their eyes. Their moods changed almost instantaneously. There was a fire in their eyes, the fire of courage and determination. I saw that flare countless times throughout my time with John and Kaitlyn. I realized… This is who we are. We’re Fate-Bane. We protect the Realms from the Forces of Darkness. There’s a war to be fought. Let’s fight it. “Now to where must we go?”

    What this Eagle said was the last thing I wanted to hear. “A city called Rio de Janeiro.”


	13. The Battle of Rio

Chapter 13: The Battle of Rio

Christian’s POV

This… This bird… Severino, his name is? I’ve heard he’s referred to as ‘Diamond-Eyes’. Why am I not surprised…? Those blue feathers and darker blue hair is very strange. He has eyes that look identical to brilliantly-cut diamonds. Clear, exquisite, and seemingly unnatural. Even my own eyes don’t shine in the fashion that his do. I gripped my scythe tightly… The blade is reminiscent of an Egyptian scimitar. Straight near the hilt, but curves abruptly at a certain point. The unblemished silver blade of my scythe is delineated in a crimson red hue. Ancient runic markings are inscribed with black against the ageless silver. I walked with Severino amongst the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The rusted, dust-covered buildings with sheeted roofs of metal that project a dissonant metallic sound when you knock on them. I whipped my head to the side, brushing my solid black hair from in front of my face. It was obscuring my vision.

Whereas it pains me to say, I do believe I was wrong to come here. I shouldn’t be involved in the war, at least not at the moment. Master Eon, the grey-haired fool, took the memories and blocked the powers of the twenty one Heroes of the Citadels in order to protect us. He believed us to be the last Light Fate-Bane left. I can’t fathom how he could have been so blind when that obviously wasn’t the case… Not even close. Actually, make that twenty. I was unaffected.

This Spix Macaw is awfully quiet, given our situation. Severino… He must be sweaty wearing those dark clothing in a hot environment like this. Worn black jeans stained with a few blotches of blood and a large tear over the right knee. A sleeveless gray sweatshirt with white fabric on the inside of the hood. On the back were white, clean Fate-Bane letters embroidered across the shoulder blades.

Severino Adalberto… That’s his name… His friend, though… I only saw the image of his face when I entered Severino’s mind and traced his friend’s bloodline to a family of Spix Macaws here in Rio… Severino then opened his beak to start conversation… “So… How much did you discover when you probed my mind?” He asked with a hint of exasperation in his voice.

“I saw your intentions, and decided to help you. It’s not incredibly difficult to find a Fate-Bane if you yourself are one as well…” I replied.

Severino rolled his eyes at me. “You’re quite the cocky young dragon, aren’t you?”

I glared at the macaw and rejoined, “Not cocky, just intelligent.”

I was met with a slight scoff from Severino. Obviously, he thinks me to be arrogant. I’m not John… Or Dean… or AJ… Or JP… My companions, the Heroes of the Citadels… I can only hope they’re still alive. “For some reason, I didn’t catch your friend’s name… The one whose descendants we’re locating?” I proposed.

“Zacarias Serafim…” Severino answered. “Don’t let the name fool you, he was anything but an angel… Arrogant, ill-tempered, stubborn… But idealistic and trustworthy… I was proud to call him my friend and brother-in-arms. I still remember vividly how he died.”

I directed my gaze away from Severino and stared straight ahead once more. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. When I opened my eyes again, I replied, “Let me guess, he was eviscerated?” I glanced in Severino’s direction, and he was looking down in despair… A small number of tears were streaming down his face… Yeah. I was right. We stopped in our tracks for the moment.

“He was ripped in half… By Khazinakhthelion…” Severino answered with a voice that was a mere instance away from breaking. “Right before my very eyes… We were outnumbered and Zacarias was a fool… Charged right into a line of Dark Fate-Bane to allow us to escape…”

I was silent for a moment. I stared at the ground and wondered how I could’ve missed that detail in his memories. “My condolences.” I muttered.

“Ah…” scoffed Severino. “It was over two hundred millennia ago, don’t let it trouble you.” He chuckled for a moment and wiped away his tears with his arm of cerulean feathers. “Look at me, an old bird crying.” That’s one terrible truth of being a Fate-Bane. You don’t die unless killed… The Realms don’t permit you or some ludicrous nonsense like that…

I felt a strange aura about the air… It was bright out just a moment ago, sun shining brilliantly… Now a layer of gray shrouded the sky, as if even nature itself feels that something is off… The last thing I expected to happen unfolded. “You know, for someone as smart as you, you select the strangest places to reside, Christian!” An all too familiar voice resounded. I immediately took a battle-stance with my scythe in hand as I turned to face him. Hovering above the metal-roofs with dark blue wings covered in turquoise markings.

“For some as insane as you, I expected a plan a bit more devised than directly challenging me face-to-face… Justin…” I countered.

He smirked, bearing his sharp-edged teeth. “So how many other Fate-Bane are in this city? Or is it just you and the blue Dodo here?” I could tell that this infuriated Severino, as he shot a menacing glare at Justin due to just that one insult.

“How _dare_ you?!” Severino snapped. “I am no insignificant, extinct, flightless bird! I am a Spix’s Macaw, you blood-boiling punk! I’ll rip your jaws out and make trinkets with your teeth! See if you can still mutter those Dahsti spells then!”

This blue dragon began to laugh, as if Severino’s threat were nothing more than a common joke. Justin laughed hysterically, almost to the point of becoming teary-eyed. The Dark Fate-Bane cleared his throat and opened his arm. “Oh, that wasn’t daring my friend…” He smirked maniacally. “ _This_ is daring!” As Justin grinned at Severino and me once more, waves and waves of dragons flooded high into the skies like a tidal wave about to unleash its fury upon all those unfortunate enough to land in its path… I recognized them… Will-Breaker dragons and Nebular Sentinel dragons… The shards of shattered light shroud the Will-Breakers’ eyes like broken glass floating in space. Galaxies that are encased in the sclera of the Nebular Sentinels shine just as they would throughout the universe…

Both are very dangerous species of dragons. One that can warp your mind and push it beyond the breaking point; another that can harness every event of the universe, every celestial phenomena at their beckoning. Waving fins extend from the skulls of the Nebular Sentinels that glow in various picturesque colors when they utilize their powers. I felt the sense of jeopardy surging through my blood. As I swung my head around, gazing down upon the city below, havoc was being wreaked. Like a hammer unleashing its thunderous stroke upon an anvil, the enemy swooped down with the intent of delivering death and seizing control.

 I turned and yelled to Severino, “ _Get out of here!!_ Go find your friend’s descendants!” I could tell that Severino saw the fury build up inside my soul. _We need all the help we can get…_ I would not forget his face. The macaw nodded and took off with mighty feathers of cerulean towards the statue of Jesus Christ.

My attention was fixated on Justin at this moment. He drew his scythe; the evil twin to mine: _Ristafaer_ the Mind-Render ominously reflecting the lightning. I gazed through his eyes and saw nothing. Nothing except his pupils dilating and shrinking. The shards of light in his sclera feverishly skittered through his eyes faster and faster. With impeccable posture and _Ristafaer_ in his right hand, he outstretched his left arm and opened his hand. Multiple shots of light, small white orbs with long comet-like tails cascaded upon me. Springing off my legs, I flew into the air as the shots congregated where I was standing. A cloud of dust surrounded that vicinity. Dashing towards Justin, clasping my scythe tightly, I slashed down at him. Sparks flew when the blades of our weapons collided…

_ Severino’s POV _

The very thought set my mind ablaze…

Several millennia have passed since I last feasted my eyes upon the gruesome of battle. In all of my experiences of war I have never seen an Element on the destructive caliber of the Nebula Element. If the enemy is efficient in one thing, it’s instilling fear. As I rushed away from the two Fate-Bane combatants behind me, I gazed sorrowfully upon the people of this city as they were slowly being massacred…

Their absolute worst fears fabricating into reality and engulfing them like a venus fly-trap devouring its unsuspecting prey. Will-Breakers _love_ to play games with the minds of their victims. Cause immense suffering, instill great fear, and have guilt eat away at your soul… I’ve seen it before.  Yes… Long ago… During the First Fate-Bane Wars and the First War of the Realms… I dreaded the day that I’d see it again, and yet here it is. The rolling thunder brought more than just the threat of rain. It brought certain death upon this extremely vulnerable city.

No amount of human tenacity can stop the Forces of Darkness… Gazing out upon the city, I watched as the citizens grasped at anything they could use as a weapon… A metal pole, sharpened branches, their small firearms, obsolete knives, anything they could grasp to defend themselves. Their measly defenses proved to be for naught as any who opposed those dark dragons… As my wings carried me above the city, I came across a Nebular Sentinel with his newest victim… The eight frills on his head throbbed violently as the young human man squirmed and fidgeted about. “Help me!!” He cried desperately. “ _Help meee!!!”_ The young man gasped for breath as the dragon drove his claws through his chest, blood seeping and bursting out, and tore out his heart...

As the young man died, the indigo dragon threw the corpse off the side of the cliff, still clenching his heart in his crimson hand, eying it in disgust with his pale-blue pupils. I landed my talons on the ground before him, with only a few mere meters between us. As the dragon snarled at me with his large veins bulging out of rage-fuel muscles, he drew his long, blood-stained sword. There were evident black spots along the metal… This dragon’s weapon is very old indeed… He charged furiously towards me with celestial wings blurring against the darkened sky… I drew my daggers, and as he went in for a stab, I flipped over him and slashed my knives across his back.

While he was stunned, I drove my blades through his neck and tore… As the corpse toppled to the ground, another round body part tumbled towards my feet… I glared at the emotionless head of the Nebular Sentinel… I sheathed my daggers once again and stared at the few drops and thin lines of blood that ran along my long, thin fingers and flat palms. As I continued to soar towards my destination, wherever that may be, other incompetent dragons made attempts to kill me… How blind they were… They know not of the experience I wield on the battlefield. This entire war is set on the foundation of greed, pride, and false promises. These dragons think they will be victorious, spared from the inevitable annihilation of the people of the Realms… After cutting down a young Will-Breaker, I gazed in great sadness upon his young face; a snout that didn’t bear a single wrinkle of age. The shards of light of his eyes continued to move about, ever so slowly through a seemingly timeless, dark space.

“Be at peace, misguided Draconian…” I whispered to the young pale green dragon as I gently shut his eyelids. I looked down upon the city, glancing upon dead human after dead human… Not a single fallen dragon was within sight. It pained me to see life extinguished in such a fashion… My heart aches for those whose time has come prematurely. The Forces of Darkness will not stop here… I believe that the enemy has knowledge of the Fate-Bane released from Arinokhthelion’s Tomb, and of the oaths that the other families are bound by, and are attempting to snuff out all hope of building our forces again.

The screeches and battle-cries of both human and dragon resounded through the air as I continued once more towards my destination… Out of the corner of my sharp eyes, I saw him. I had believed that I was starting to go insane, for this humanoid Spix macaw looked exactly like me… Though he lacked the diamond eyes, he still bore that… ‘Fuzzy’ blue hair. Behind him stood his family, watching in distress and sadness as the Spix Macaw bore a massive, intricately-shaped shield that resembles two merged triangles and a weapon I couldn’t exactly make out…

“Dad, no, you can’t!!” One of the younger Spix Macaws shouted. Tears were streaming from her large eyes of rose. Her tail feathers were striped with crimson. She cried as she held onto her older brother.

“Blu, if you go out there, I’m coming with you!” The oldest female, presumably his mate, declared indefinitely. 

The father turned his head and replied to his family, “NO!” He shouted. “I’m sick and tired of every creature and their brother bearing the mindset that they can push us around however and whenever they damn-well please!!” HE exclaimed. “Jewel, take the kids, and get to safety.”

“I’m coming with you, Dad!” One of the adolescents, with feathers on the back of his head that spiraled outwards, exclaimed. He grabbed his weapons, an axe and a sword, and rushed to his father’s side, only for him to be pushed back by the father.

The Father, named Blu, snarled at his son, “I said ‘No’, Tiago! This is something I have to do alone…” I watched all of this unfurl as the last thing I expected to occur took place… Deep down… I knew it had to be them… Blu’s weapon became clear to me as the mechanisms of the short handle he held unraveled to reveal a longer hilt, from which sprung an axe on one side and a hammer on the other. From the bottom of the hilt a short sword extended, gleaming in the dark. This is the triple weapon of Zacarias Serafim… This Spix Macaw family is his descendants…

Blu charged towards a group of five evil Dragons, staring at his with specks for pupils, saliva and blood dripping down their sharpened teeth, wielding dangerously sharp tools of death… As the Spix Macaw’s eyes dilated, he charged at them, wielding no bodily protection other than his tower-shield and triple-weapon. The easiest thing to do would be to let him die… He’s reckless, just like his ancestor…

I had no reason… No second thoughts… Something just… compelled me to act… From where I stood, I expanded my wings and rushed ahead, blocking an incoming strike from a Nebular Sentinel upon my comrade’s descendant.

“You certainly take after your ancestor, don’t you, Blu?” I turned my neck around and asked the stunned young Macaw as I struggled against the opposing dragon.

“What?” Blu muttered in shock. I released a battle-cry and struck down the five dragons, slicing them down like a freshly-sharpened sword against paper.

After removing the head of my latest victim, I face the Spix Macaw, with my chest out, looking down upon his unorganized hair. “You have a family, Blu… You’re much stronger when they’re around… Remember that…”

“I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Severino Adalberto. I am a Light Fate-Bane and a former brother-in-arms to your ancestor, Zacarias Serafim.”

One of his children meekly approached us, gripping a short-sword and a small, round iron shield. “Father… What’s he talking about?” He asked. There’s no way this boy is older than twelve.

“Enzo, go back to your mother.” Soon, three more approached us. “Rico, Rosa, Luna, all of you! Stay with your mother, Achez, Roma, and Grecia!”

One of Blu’s daughters, a tall one with a lengthy, shiny braid crossed her arms whilst grasping her flute. To her sides were presumably her brothers, wielding a guitar and a drum respectively. “Dad, I may be one of your little girls, but we’re going to stand by you, even to death itself!”

“Grecia…” Blu groaned. He directed his gaze at his spouse. I, on the other hand, simply tilted my head and looked on, chuckling as I did. They remind me of my own family back when I was younger. “Jewel, help me out here…!”

Jewel simply rolled her eyes at her mate. “They’re your kids.” She replied.

“They’re _your_ kids, too!” Blu exclaimed. As the cerulean family was gathering their weapons, I gazed out of my peripherals at a blue streak hammered against a nearby building. When the dust settled, my other Fate-Bane companion lied there, covered in cuts and gashes from a scythe… Standing over him… The green-marked blue Will-Breaker…

Justin laughed maniacally as he drove Christian’s face into the debris. “How does it feel now, Christian?! How does it fe-” The psychotic dragon took notice of our little cluster of Spix Macaws. “No…” He rushed at me with his menacing scythe, stained with fresh Draconian blood… I blocked the blade with my knives, and drove my foot into the Dark Fate-Bane’s chest, pushing him away from the Spix Macaw family.

Christian’s POV

I laid face-down in the debris of crumbled bricks and dented steel roofing, too exhausted to stand, but determined to do it regardless. You mess with my friends… You mess with the Fate-Bane… You mess with me…

Against excruciating pain, blood flowing from my nostrils, I forced myself to stand up as Severino fought the monster known as Justin… Before I knew it, Severino lay unconscious at Justin’s feet, dazed and stunned… I’m willing to bet Justin placed a mind spell on him… It would not last long, but it would last long enough to kill that bird family that Severino was protecting… The one whom I assume is the father stood with his shield between Justin and his frightened children, and the father’s mate standing at his side with a sword with two blades extending from each side of the hilt.

As Justin was about to strike the blue birds with his scythe, I felt something burning within me, struggling to burst out from the tip of my tongue… Boiling blood coursed through my every vessel, I gripped my scythe so tightly and with such frustration that I feared my anger alone could melt the handle.

The macaws didn’t even focus on Justin at this point, no… They stared in pure fear at me… I raised my own scythe from behind Justin… He didn’t even notice. He didn’t know what had just hit him. Imbued with my own power as a Fate-Bane and with my own sheer fury, I hollered,

“ _Aitahraccarlinta!!!”_

That one forceful blast of magical energy sent my rival sailing into a heap of rubble. As he rose up once more with eyes festering with anger and rage beyond my own comprehension, he bore his teeth and snarled, “You just signed your _death_ warrant, Christian!!!” As the blue dragon screeched and leaned forward to charge at me, I took a battle-stance… Miscellaneous rays of a setting sunlight began to break through the morbid clouds and shine softly on the ruined city…

Salvation came upon the horizon. With a dazzle, a beamed arrow of light sunk into the debris in front of Justin, then slowly glittered and disintegrated into the air. I heard the roar of wind underneath dragon-wings as three familiars landed gracefully before in before me. I could never forget those azure scales…

“How you doin’, Christian?” The one known as Léonidas asked me. The tone of his voice practically shouted ‘carelessness.’ I heard Severino sigh and groan as he slowly picked himself up. A few of the macaws helped him onto his talon-feet. His eyes widened as he gazed upon my three companions.

“Bless my feathers…” Severino gasped in pure astonishment. “’Tis the Heir of Arinokhthelion!”

Léonidas chuckled for a moment. “Glad I get some recognition!”

“You’re not the only one here, elf-lord…” The black dragon called John remarked sarcastically. Remind me to beat him later. I gazed out onto the calm waters below… Thousands upon thousands of winged saviors rained down upon the enemies… Eagles and dragons, clad in Romanesque battle-armour, and very few I could tell at a glance are Fate-Bane. Light Fate-Bane.

“You’ve saved us, Léonidas…” I said. “My hero…”

He simple rolled his eyes as I took a place next to him, between him and John. He simply replied, “Spare me your sarcasm, Christian… And my name’s Arindar now…”

“Yeah, yeah, we get it…” The pink dragoness… What was her name? Ah, yes… Kaitlyn! Kaitlyn’s patience had simply run dry at this point. We took a stance at Justin, ready to attack with our weapons and magics. He wasn’t even fazed. He simply looked at us with an unnerving smile.

Justin laughed, with at or with himself, for a short moment. “My God, you incompetent worms are _soooo_ bad at timing… We’ve already killed thousands! But, I guess now that you and your host of Romans are here… We have no further objective here.” He leapt off the ground and soared into the blue yonder. With his departure followed the remaining host of corrupt dragons that initiated this chaos. The dark clouds that had shrouded the city had dispersed, leaving only a red sunset on the horizon.

“Christian…” Arindar said to me as he placed his large left hand on my shoulder. He gave me a stern look, gripping his long-bow in his right with a tightening fist. “You’ve got some explaining to do…”

“He’s not the only one!” One of the macaws exclaimed. The tall blue teenage-looking macaw stared at us with an annoyed glare. You don’t need a brain my size to know that this was going to be a long conversation…


End file.
